Media coverage and Support for Populist Parties: the role of populist rhetoric and issue agreement

The rise of right-wing populist parties throughout Western Europe has resulted in a number of potential explanations for their success. Various scholars have suggested that the mass media play an important role in populist party support: the populist rhetoric of such parties increases the chances that journalists include them in their coverage. In turn, media are a platform through which these parties can communicate with the public at large. Yet, it is unclear how media coverage of populist parties affects electoral support of these parties. Building on priming theory, we argue that populist rhetoric can foster electoral support by priming populist attitudes. However, voters' agreement with the parties' policy positions is a prerequisite, as it affects the extent to which voters accept the parties’ rhetoric. We draw on an experimental design (N=600) in which we exposed voters to media coverage in which the Dutch right-wing populist party PVV discusses its policy using either populist rhetoric or not, for four different issues (immigration, crime, privacy and taxes). The results suggest that especially issue agreement with the actual policy has a affects the impact of media coverage on electoral support, with the presence or absence of populist rhetoric yielding mixed results.