Discourse studies

In this chapter, salient discursive dimensions of populism are elaborated while considering inherent characteristics of manifold genres and contexts. The discourse analysis of traditional media texts and speeches is juxtaposed with the multi-modal analysis of social media, posters and images. I discuss three important approaches to the discourse of and about populism: populism as discourse; populism as style; and discourse about populism. Apart from the extreme right, most politicians today continue to use a more subtle, coded version of previously blunt exclusionary text and talk. It is this coded language that all discursive approaches to populism are concerned with because the emerging ‘coarse civility’ is becoming acceptable for mainstream political parties. Processes of normalization occupy centre stage: the insinuations to common sense of those ‘in the know’; the euphemisms that serve to mask crises and discriminatory policies; and the arguments and legitimation strategies employed to justify the unjustifiable or speak the unspeakable.