The digital performance of populism

In this chapter, we explore the concept of populist digital performance, addressing the manner in which populist leaders strategically use digital media. We approach populism as a communicative phenomenon and argue that meaning-making is an important facet of populist performance in digital media, which draws on mediated and political contexts. To address this topic, we outline an analytical scheme for approaching such performance. Specifically, we address four types of populist digital performance: performances within and to the media, and performances of and about mediation. By organizing the literature into these four types of populist performance, we find that populist leaders use digital platforms as a tool and a symbolic resource, which is often strikingly effective and suited to the affordances of the platforms. The analytical scheme that we present in this chapter demonstrates a novel manner of approaching mediated populism and should inform future scholars in their research addressing the role of populism on digital platforms.