Populism, Conspiracies and the Media in the Age of Disinformation

Populism and conspiracy theories are naturally compatible: while populists tend to position themselves against a homogenous, morally corrupt and ‘evil elite’ who seek to undermine the ‘general will of the people’, conspiracists maintain that public authorities are malevolent and purposely concealing their evil plans at the expense of the wider public. Indeed, populism and conspiracist thinking often go hand in hand. Prominent examples include the founder of the Italian Five Star Movement, Beppe Grillo, spreading fears about vaccines causing autism, and US President Donald Trump having ties to the ‘birther movement’, which claimed that Barack Obama’s birth certificate was fraudulent. Despite the clear overlap, the relationship between populism and conspiracies remains poorly understood. This paper seeks to address this gap by focussing specifically on the role of media. The central premise of the paper is that by studying the media, we can gain a deeper understanding of the connection between populism and conspiracies. Structural changes in the media landscape (e.g. commercialisation and the advent of digital media platforms) have altered the ways in which information is spread and consumed. The changing character of the media landscape has contributed to the mediatisation of politics. Populist leaders seem to benefit from the commercial character of the growing popular news media as they are bound to pay attention to what happens in the usually very animated domains of populist movements. In that sense, the media can play an instrumental role in disseminating populist messages and rallying voters’ support. Since the media are so inclined to cover sensational stories provided by controversial politicians, populist politicians have an incentive to use conspiracist thinking to gain media attention. Although conspiracy theories have long been present, most remained marginal because they were easily contained by editorial gatekeeping. However, when conspiracy theories are picked up, confirmed and disseminated by people with authority, they are more likely to have social or political influence. In that sense, populist politicians can become important agents that help carry conspiracist propositions past the editorial gatekeepers of mainstream media. The aim of the paper is to conceptualise the ways in which populists use and relate to conspiracy theories in the media. It does so by analysing the ways in which populists strategically use conspiracies to gain media attention. The paper then asks why and on what grounds mainstream media pick up the ‘language of conspiracy’ employed by populist politicians. The analysis suggests that the media can play an important role in mainstreaming populist and conspiracist thinking.