Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
New Media and Populism, Ahmet Sinav, Editör, Eğitim Kitabevi, Ankara, ss.105-122, 2023
The 21st century is witnessing the rebirth of populism as a global
phenomenon. Populism, which Moffit (2020) labelled as a fringe phenomenon
that seems to belong to another era or a specific area of the world, has now
become a mainstay of contemporary politics. To explain this situation,
some thinkers use concepts such as “populist wave”, “populist resurgence”,
“new populism”. In addition, the number of academic studies on populism
has increased exponentially in recent years. Moreover, this new interest in
populism is not limited to academic studies. Politicians and journalists have
also started to express their opinions on this concept in recent years, portraying
it as a great danger for democracy.
Nevertheless, the debate on the definition, essence and effects of this
concept is still not over. Even today, populism is recognised as a vague concept
with definitions produced under different academic disciplines. Thinkers
researching on populism mention that it is extremely difficult to define it as a
concept. When we look at recent studies, it is possible to come across different
definitions of populism as a kind of political reason/logic, political discourse,
political communication method, political strategy or a mode of identification.
Mudde (2004) states that populism, which he tries to express with the title of
“the definition of the indefinable”, is handled with two different interpretations
in the academic literature that evoke extremely negative meanings. According
to him, the first interpretation in the endeavour to define populism defends the
view that populists agitate the public by adopting an emotional level of rhetoric.
According to this interpretation, populists are angry and their voters are angry
and full of resentment. Hence, populism is synonymous with demagoguery and
populists with demagogues. The second interpretation understands populism as
a tool used by politicians to “buy” the support/votes of voters. Kazin (2016), on
the other hand, states that the debate on whether the concept of populism is a
doctrine, a style, a political strategy, a marketing tactic or a combination of all
of these is still ongoing.
Especially since the 1980s, many books, articles and columns have been
written about populist parties since they have become decisive in political
life. The fact that populist political parties have been decisive in the formation
and execution of political practices by influencing the public opinion and the
government in the political life of countries and their rise to power through
elections has led to an increase in the number of studies on them. In these
studies, there are also debates on whether populism should be considered as
a historical phenomenon or as a concept. While historians generally accept
populism as a historical phenomenon, political scientists, sociologists and
critical theorists tend to treat it as a concept.
This book aims to address both the historical roots and the conceptual
structure of populism, to address different aspects of the ongoing deep conceptual
debates and to contribute to the literature through original studies. While the
classical definition of populism that focuses on the distinction between “the
people” and “the elites” continues, its reliance on new media technologies, its
relationship with changing modes of political representation and identification,
and its increasing ubiquity need to be explained. Therefore, it is necessary to
re-discuss populism in the context of the transforming global media. In this new
media environment, it is important to abandon the view that populism exists as
a direct or unmediated phenomenon between the leader and the people, and to
explore and demonstrate the intensely mediated nature of populism. This book
aims to present a different perspective on populist discourse and action, thanks
to the ubiquity, easy accessibility, increasing speed and scope of communication
technologies.
The book includes original research that focuses on this basic understanding
and evaluates the concept of populism from different perspectives in the context
of new communication technologies. This study has emerged with the joint
efforts of Eren EFE, Özlem ÇETİN ÖZTÜRK, Dilek KIZILIRMAK, Taylan
MARAL, Abdulkadir BÜYÜKBİNGÖL from İstanbul Gelişim University,
Department of New Media and Communication; Ali DAĞLAR from Faculty
of Fine Arts and Eren EKİN ERCAN from Aydın Adnan Menderes University,
Faculty of Communication, Department of Journalism. For this reason, I would
like to express my sincere thanks to all the chapter authors who contributed to
the book.
Hoping to be useful to the reader...
November, 2023
İstanbul