Who are the people? Using fandom research to study populist supporters

ABSTRACT

This article suggests considering a social facet of populism, focusing on the supporters, to grasp how they use media to engage with the populist message and their understanding of it. The article proposes that a fan studies approach can be useful to examine how populist supporters’ identification with the imagined community of pure people can help them address specific social-psychological needs. A study applying this approach to the Spanish populist far-right provides evidence that a fan studies framework can help understand populist supporters’ community-building processes and benefits. Then, the article explains the implications for research on populism using this approach, offering a guide for future research. This work is relevant to multiple areas including political communication and cultural studies.

KEYWORDS:

• Populism
• online media
• political communication
• fan studies
• mass media
• fandom

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Prof. Ben Toff for creating the space for me to develop these ideas during our independent study. I also wish to thank my advisor, Prof. Giovanna Dell’Orto, for encouraging me to study topics I am passionate about. I presented an early version of this work at the ICA conference and the Minnesota Journalism Center. I wish to thank everyone who provided me with feedback at these two venues. Among them, Prof. Christian Baden provided me with critical feedback that shaped this work. Finally, I want to thank the anonymous reviewers, whose suggestions greatly improved this article, and Dr. David Ewoldsen for his invaluable mentorship throughout this process.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).