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Social media populism: features and ‘likeability’ of Lega Nord communication on Facebook

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2026

Giuliano Bobba
Giuliano Bobba*
Affiliation:
Department of Cultures Politics and Society, University of Turin, Lungo Dora Siena 100, 10153 Turin, Italy Collegio Carlo Alberto, Piazza Vincenzo Arbarello 8, 10122 Turin, Italy
*
E-mail: giuliano.bobba@unito.it
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Abstract

Social media have changed the way politicians communicate with and relate to their constituencies during election campaigns and routine periods alike. Many scholars have postulated that populists would benefit most from the new digital media. Despite their growing importance, few studies have addressed the features of online populist communication and how to assess its success. The purpose of this article is to fill this gap by providing a framework for the analysis of populist communication on social media. Taking the case of Italy’s Lega Nord (Northern League (LN)) as an example, the article will clarify which aspects of online communication are most valued by LN supporters, in relation to both the key elements of populism (references to ‘the people’, ‘elites’ and ‘others’) and the expression of an emotional style in the messages. The article analyses the controlled communication that LN and its leader, Matteo Salvini, published on their Facebook profiles during a sample period of 30 days. Our findings demonstrate that populism, emotional style and, in general, the role of the leader as a source of communication positively affect the ‘likeability’ of a message.

Keywords

Social mediaPolitical communicationPopulismNorthern league

Information

Type
Symposium
Information
European Political Science , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , March 2019 , pp. 11 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 European Consortium for Political Research

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