Introduction

This introduction explores the relationship between the media and the spirit of populism as a conceptual matter. This chapter provides a general analytical framework for the individual contributions to this book. It begins by investigating the idea of the populist Geist and “the politics of faith,” as formulated by political scientist Margaret Canovan . It then explains the logics of the present hybrid media environment and investigates its key features: epistemic instability, commercial logics, popular form, and affective culture. The authors analyze those key features and their alignment with populist modes of communication, as well as with the spirit of populism proposed by Daniel Nilsson DeHanas and its four dimensions: sacred, charismatic, redemptive, and apocalyptic. The last section introduces the individual contributions to this book and discusses the novel insights they provide into the complex dynamics between digital media and the spirit of populism in the present world.