Populist Citizens' Media & Public Opinion Perceptions
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Zurich Open Repository and Archive University of Zurich Main Library Strickhofstrasse 39 CH-8057 Zurich www.zora.uzh.ch Year: 2019 Populist citizens’ media perceptions and media use in western democracies Schulz, Anne Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-175375 Dissertation Published Version Originally published at: Schulz, Anne. Populist citizens’ media perceptions and media use in western democracies. 2019, Univer- sity of Zurich, Faculty of Arts. Populist Citizens’ Media Perceptions and Media Use in Western Democracies Thesis (cumulative thesis) presented to the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of the University of Zurich for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Anne Schulz Accepted in the spring semester 2019 on the recommendation of the doctoral committee composed of Prof. Dr. Werner Wirth (main supervisor) Prof. Dr. Christiane Eilders Zurich, 2019 II Danksagung Ich möchte den folgenden Personen für die fachliche und emotionale Unterstützung danken, ohne die diese Arbeit nicht entstanden wäre. Meinen Betreuern, Mentoren, Kollegen und Freunden im Fach: Werner Wirth, Christiane Eilders, Dominique Wirz, Philipp Müller, Martin Wettstein, Christian Schemer, Nicole Ernst, Sina Blassnig, Dennis Frieß, Alexander Wuttke, Katharina Sommer, Friederike Vinzenz, Fabian Ryffel, Frank Esser, Jesper Strömbäck und Patrick Rössler. Meinen Freunden aus Erfurt, Nauen, Berlin und Zürich: Victoria Kupsch, Julia Ebert, Laura Schneeberger, Anne & Franz Kabis, Carlo Pankonin, Aleksandra Hiltmann, Doris Tinner, Jennifer Studer, Benedikt Dorschner, Raphael Röcken, Uli Hahn, Václav Protiva, Aurel Martin, Marta Robra, Thorsten Spachmann und Michael Schmid. Meiner Familie, insbesondere meinen Eltern: Heike & Dietmar Schulz Meinem Freund sowie dessen Familie: Laurent Nicolet Ich danke euch allen insbesondere dafür, dass Ihr mich immer habt wissen lassen, dass sich nicht ändert, wer ich für Euch bin, auch wenn dieser Plan hier nicht aufgeht. III List of Articles This cumulative dissertation is based on the four publications listed on this page. This ac- cords to §7 in the doctoral guidelines of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of the Uni- versity of Zurich, dated July 8th, 2009. Article I: Schulz, A., Müller, P., Schemer, C., Wirz, D. S., Wettstein, M., & Wirth, W. (2018). Measuring populist attitudes on three dimensions. International Jour- nal of Public Opinion Research, 30(2), 316—326. doi:10.1093/ijpor/edw037. Article II: Schulz, A., Wirth, W. & Müller, P. (2018). We are the people and you are Fake News. A social identity approach to populist citizens’ hostile media and false consensus perceptions. Communication Research, 1—26. Advance online publication. doi:10.1177/0093650218794854 Article III: Schulz, A. (2019). Where populist citizens get the news: An investigation of news audience polarization along populist attitudes in 11 countries. Commu- nication Monographs, 86(1), 88–111. doi:10.1080/03637751.2018.1508876 Article IV: Müller, P. & Schulz A. (under review). Who uses anti-elitist alternative me- dia? Exploring predictors of occasional and frequent exposure. Information, Communication & Society. Synopsis: Schulz, A. (2019). Populist citizens’ media perceptions and media use in Western democracies. Synopsis of a cumulative dissertation. Zurich: University of Zurich. The articles are referred to in the text by their Roman numerals. IV Contents Danksagung ..................................................................................................................... III List of Articles ................................................................................................................. IV Contents ........................................................................................................................... V List of Figures ................................................................................................................. VII List of Tables .................................................................................................................. VII Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1 : Research Gaps and Research Questions .......................................................... 6 Research Context and Main Objective ........................................................................... 6 The Populist Belief System ............................................................................................ 8 RQ 1: Individual Level Support for Populism .............................................................. 13 RQ 2: Populist Citizens’ Media and Public Opinion Perceptions.................................. 15 RQ 3: Populist Citizens’ News Preferences .................................................................. 17 Overview of Articles .................................................................................................... 19 Chapter 2 : The Populist Ideology .................................................................................... 22 A Thin-Centered Ideology ........................................................................................... 22 Populist Idea-Elements ................................................................................................ 24 Populism as Identity Politics ........................................................................................ 27 Chapter 3 : Populist Attitudes .......................................................................................... 30 1st Generation Measurements ....................................................................................... 31 A Hierarchical Three-Dimensional Measurement......................................................... 34 Results Article I ........................................................................................................... 35 Measurement Invariance Test .................................................................................. 38 2nd Generation Measurements – An Ongoing Debate .................................................. 40 Chapter 4 : Populist Citizens’ Media & Public Opinion Perceptions ................................ 44 Social Identity Approach to Populist Attitudes ............................................................ 45 V The Social Identity Perspective ................................................................................ 46 Applying the Social Identity Perspective to Populism .............................................. 48 Populist Attitudes and Public Opinion Perceptions ..................................................... 52 Populist Attitudes and Media Perceptions .................................................................... 54 Populist Attitudes and the Persuasive Press Inference.................................................. 58 Results Article II .......................................................................................................... 60 Populist Attitudes and Genre-Specific Media Skepticism ......................................... 62 Summary...................................................................................................................... 65 Chapter 5: Populist Citizens’ News Preferences ............................................................... 68 Selective Exposure as a Product of Social Identity ....................................................... 69 Approach to In-Group Sources ................................................................................... 70 Avoidance of Out-Group Sources ............................................................................... 75 Results Article III ........................................................................................................ 76 Results Article IV ......................................................................................................... 79 Summary...................................................................................................................... 80 Chapter 6: Main Findings, Discussion & Contributions ................................................... 81 Summary and Discussion of Main Findings ................................................................. 81 Display of Main Contributions ..................................................................................... 89 Closing Personal Remark ............................................................................................. 91 References ....................................................................................................................... 93 Appendix A : Articles ......................................................................................................... i Appendix B : Selbstständigkeitserklärung ........................................................................... ii Appendix C : Eigenständigkeitserklärung .......................................................................... iii Appendix D : Curriculum Vitae ........................................................................................ iv VI List of Figures Figure 1. The populist belief system. ........................................................................................... 11 Figure 2. Path diagram of a hierarchical three-dimensional measurement model................. 35 List of Tables Table 1. English items comprising the final IPA as