IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cog/poango/v10y2022i1p197-209.html

The Informational Consequences of Populism: Social Media News Use and “News Finds Me” Perception

Author

Listed:
  • Pablo González-González

    (Democracy Research Unit, University of Salamanca, Spain)

  • Hugo Marcos-Marné

    (Democracy Research Unit, University of Salamanca, Spain)

  • Iván Llamazares

    (Democracy Research Unit, University of Salamanca, Spain)

  • Homero Gil de Zúñiga

    (Democracy Research Unit, University of Salamanca, Spain / Department of Film Production and Media Studies, Pennsylvania State University, USA / Department of Communication, Universidad Diego Portales, Chile)

Abstract

Prior studies have theorized a positive association between people’s populist attitudes and an increased use of social media to consume news, which will be mainly driven by individuals’ engagement with news that reflects their people-centered, anti-elitist, and Manichean understanding of politics. However, such general connection remains elusive. This research seeks to further clarify this strand of the literature by incorporating people’s belief that important political information will find them without actively seeking news—"News Finds Me” perception (NFM). For that, we use online survey data from two European countries that differ regarding the ideological political supply side of populism (Italy and Portugal). The main results suggest that citizens who hold stronger populist attitudes will also develop stronger NFM. Furthermore, findings reveal a mediating effect of social media news use on the effects of populist attitudes over NFM. That is, those who hold stronger populist attitudes tend to use social media to get exposed to public affairs news more often, which in turn explains the development of the NFM. These results emphasize the importance of systematically exploring citizens populists’ attitudes within today’s social media, social networks, and complex information systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Pablo González-González & Hugo Marcos-Marné & Iván Llamazares & Homero Gil de Zúñiga, 2022. "The Informational Consequences of Populism: Social Media News Use and “News Finds Me” Perception," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 10(1), pages 197-209.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:197-209
    DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i1.4772
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4772
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17645/pag.v10i1.4772?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rudiger Dornbusch & Sebastian Edwards, 1991. "The Macroeconomics of Populism," NBER Chapters, in: The Macroeconomics of Populism in Latin America, pages 7-13, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Marco Lisi & Enrico Borghetto, 2018. "Populism, Blame Shifting and the Crisis: Discourse Strategies in Portuguese Political Parties," South European Society and Politics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(4), pages 405-427, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dani Rodrik, 2018. "Populism and the economics of globalization," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 1(1), pages 12-33, June.
    2. Ntentas, Raphael, 2021. "Quantifying political populism and examining the link with economic insecurity: evidence from Greece," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 112579, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Seghezza, Elena & Pittaluga, Giovanni B., 2018. "Resource rents and populism in resource-dependent economies," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 83-88.
    4. Mejia, Daniel & Posada, Carlos-Esteban, 2007. "Populist policies in the transition to democracy," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 932-953, December.
    5. Matevž (Matt) Rašković & Katalin Takacs Haynes & Anastas Vangeli, 2024. "The emergence of populism as an institution and its recursive mechanisms: A socio-cognitive theory perspective," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(1), pages 19-40, March.
    6. Alfred Steinherr & Alessandro Cisotta & Erik Klar & Kenan Sehovic, 2006. "Liberalizing Cross-Border Capital Flows: How Effective Are Institutional Arrangements against Crisis in Southeast Asia," Working Papers on Regional Economic Integration 6, Asian Development Bank.
    7. Pablo García S. & Camilo Pérez N., 2017. "Desigualdad, inflación, ciclos y crisis en Chile," Estudios de Economia, University of Chile, Department of Economics, vol. 44(2 Year 20), pages 185-221, December.
    8. Giovanni Andrea Cornia, 2012. "The New Structuralist Macroeconomics and Income Inequality," Working Papers - Economics wp2012_25.rdf, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa.
    9. Giovanni Andrea Cornia & Bruno Martorano, 2010. "Policies for Reducing Income Inequality: Latin America During the Last Decade," Working papers 1006, UNICEF,Division of Policy and Strategy.
    10. Emilio Ocampo, 2020. "What Kind of Populism is Peronism?," CEMA Working Papers: Serie Documentos de Trabajo. 732, Universidad del CEMA.
    11. Emilio Ocampo, 2021. "A Brief History of Hyperinflation in Argentina," CEMA Working Papers: Serie Documentos de Trabajo. 787, Universidad del CEMA.
    12. Anand, Kartik & Gai, Prasanna & König, Philipp Johann, 2020. "Leaping into the dark: A theory of policy gambles," Discussion Papers 07/2020, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    13. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/1divsbu8t888r9vqektjbmlqoa is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Federico Faveretto & Donato Masciandaro, 2018. "Financial Inequality, group entitlements and populism," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 1892, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    15. Raphael Ntentas, 2021. "Quantifying Political Populism and Examining the Link with Economic Insecurity: evidence from Greece," GreeSE – Hellenic Observatory Papers on Greece and Southeast Europe 165, Hellenic Observatory, LSE.
    16. Akhand Akhtar Hossain, 2009. "Central Banking and Monetary Policy in the Asia-Pacific," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 12777.
    17. Feliz, Raul Anibal & Welch, John H., 1997. "Cointegration and tests of a classical model of inflation in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico, and Peru," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 189-219, February.
    18. Alogoskoufis, George, 2024. "Before and after the political transition of 1974: institutions, politics, and the economy of post-war Greece," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 124056, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    19. Aldunate, Felipe & González, Felipe & Prem, Mounu & Urzúa, Francisco, 2020. "Privatization and business groups: Evidence from the Chicago Boys in Chile," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    20. Deborah J. Yashar, 2007. "Resistance and Identity Politics in an Age of Globalization," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 610(1), pages 160-181, March.
    21. Pedro Cezar Dutra Fonseca, 2003. "Legitimidade e Credibilidade: Impasses da Política Econômica do Governo Goulart," Anais do XXXI Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 31st Brazilian Economics Meeting] a09, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:197-209. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: António Vieira or IT Department (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cogitatiopress.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.