Agenda-bias and populist parties: The case of SYRIZA in the 2019 Greek elections

Research has suggested that populist leaders and the media have a symbiotic relationship. Populists feed media broadcasts with news stories, which, in turn, offer populists the opportunity to flood the media with their political agenda. However, existing research has focused predominantly on right-wing populists, which makes it unclear whether the documented symbiosis is simply populist-biased or rather more specifically right-wing-populist-biased. This article addresses this question by examining media bias in the coverage of the 2019 electoral campaign in Greece. We study agenda bias by using original data from televised interviews on privately owned channels with populist left-wing leader Alexis Tsipras (SYRIZA) and right-wing leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis (New Democracy). The comparison between the issues raised by journalists and the salience of those issues in SYRIZA’s manifesto reveals that the interview topics poorly matched the party’s agenda. In contrast, the same analysis in relation to Mitsotakis’s interviews shows relatively higher agreement with his party’s priorities. Moreover, a closer look into the subjects addressed revealed that the questions posed to Tsipras were often contentious, focusing on scandals and controversies. Conversely, Mitsotakis’s interviews were predominantly non-hostile and addressed programmatic matters. This conclusion suggests that rather than being attracted to a general populist rhetoric, the media seems to be interested in covering topics specifically associated with right-wing populism.