Populism in Scandinavian Immigration Discourse 1970–2016

Authors

  • Hilmar Mjelde University of Bergen Department of Information Science and Media Studies
  • Jan Fredrik Hovden University of Bergen Department of Information Science and Media Studies University of Bergen jan.hovden@uib.no

Keywords:

populism, immigration discourse, media coverage, Scandinavia, news press

Abstract

This article measures and discusses populism in Scandinavian immigration debate from 1970 to 2016. Using descriptive statistical analysis and logistical regression analysis, we analyze items related to immigration in six newspapers from the three  countries over four constructed weeks for each of the 47 years under study, in total 4,329 coded newspaper articles. We find that populism spikes when immigration spikes due to international developments/crises. References to “the people,” anti-elitism, exclusionist rhetoric, but also alarmist rhetoric about a state of emergency, are the most frequently appearing attributes. Second, country, newspaper genre, and party type of quoted politicians are clearly correlated with populism. Populism is much more likely to be found in Denmark, opinion genres, paticularly letters to the editor, when populist radical-right parties are either speaking or spoken about in the press, and in articles with threat frames.

Author Biographies

Hilmar Mjelde, University of Bergen Department of Information Science and Media Studies

PostdoctorDepartment of Information Science and Media StudiesUniversity of Bergenhilmar.mjelde@uib.no

Jan Fredrik Hovden, University of Bergen Department of Information Science and Media Studies University of Bergen jan.hovden@uib.no

 Professor Department of Information Science and Media Studies University of Bergen jan.hovden@uib.no

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Published

2019-10-29

Issue

Vol. 13 (2019)

Section

Articles

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