Martin Moore: Social media and mainstream news pages are increasingly reliant on measures of engagement as evidenced by number of page views, likes, tweets, shares, click-throughs and site traffic.
The public sphere is then dominated by issues that are popular. Populism, when applied to politics, used to be a negative term, associated after the two world wars as 'sinister, dark and frightening' and 'uncompromising, polarising, divisive and led to discrimination against religious, ethnic, economic and sexual minorities'.
Popularism is emotive, strident and engages with certain themes: emphasising the sovereignty of the people, advocating for the people, attacking the elite, ostracising others, and invoking 'the heartland'.
Why 'most-read'lists are ruining politics by Martin Moore, in the New European, issue 29 July-4 Aug 2016. Martin Moore runs a research centre at King's College London (Centre for the Study of Media, Communication and Power).
Peter Mandelson: A multitude of motivations created Brexit's 52%. For many it created zero risk of war in Europe, is a major driver of prosperity and a means of its member states to exercise more power in the world. For others, it is too big and bossy, detracts from national sovereignty and gets in the way of our relations with countries in the rest of the world. He feels that only a minority felt strongly either way.
The 'take control' slogan appealed to rich and poor alike, an appeal to national heroism and a chance to take it out on the ruling class. A crucial source of fuel was a small clique of right-wing media players who exercise a disproportionate power in the country and play internal politics inside the Tory party. Rupert Murdoch, Paul Dacre (editor in chief of the Daily Mail) and David and Frederick Barclay (owners of the Telegraph) have long operated as a cartel, both competing commercially and collaborating politically on shared causes. Their power and UKIP's growing electoral support were probably why David Cameron gave into to demands for a referendum.
Leave voters were angry at being left behind, not having benefitted from globalisation;people whose real incomes have not risen and who have borne the brunt of austerity. While they were exploited by the populism and lies of the Leave campaign, the causes of their anger need to be addressed. Economic benefits need to be more fairly distributed. The fear of uncontrolled migration needs to be addressed. The EU needs to look at all forms of migration: free movement, refugees and economic migrants.
Why 'the Brexiteers won - and what must be done to stem the rise of racism by Peter Mandelson, in the New European,
issue 29 July-4 Aug 2016.
