Open AccessHow populist crisis rhetoric affects voters in Switzerland
Author(s) -
Dominique S. Wirz,
Martin Wettstein,
Anne Schulz,
Nicole Ernst,
Christian Schemer,
Werner Wirth
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
studies in communication sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2296-4150
pISSN - 1424-4896
DOI - 10.24434/j.scoms.2019.01.006
Subject(s) - populism , elite , rhetoric , immigration , politics , style (visual arts) , newspaper , right wing , political science , advertising , order (exchange) , political communication , political economy , sociology , law , business , linguistics , history , philosophy , archaeology , finance
Right-wing populism has a long tradition in Switzerland. Nevertheless, only little is known about how populist messages in the media contribute to the success of the Swiss People’s Party (SVP) and to the acceptance of the party’s anti-immigration policies. In this study, we combine data from a large media content analysis (including newspapers and TV news shows) with data from a panel-survey in order to address this research gap. Thereby we differentiate between effects driven by the content and the form of right-wing populist communication. While right-wing populist content depicts immigrants and the political elite as a threat to the Swiss people, populist style evokes the sense of a crisis by emotionalizing and dramatizing the message. Populist style is therefore assumed to increase the persuasiveness of populist claims. The results of this study suggest that this is the case only for some voters, while it backfires for others.