Together with the people: Framing populism in government and opposition newspapers in President Chávez’s Venezuela

President Chávez’ (1999–2013) rhetoric, policies and style of administration are often connected to populism. This study focuses on how this populist politics affects the contents of the media. In the research, populism is approached from Laclau’s (2005) point of view as a political logic which is about constructing the people. The research includes three different case studies collected from Venezuelan newspapers. In the case studies, four different newspapers that have politically and economically distinct backgrounds are examined, focusing on the last years of Chávez’s presidency. There are three different news events, and in each of them one of the core concepts of populism – the people, leader, and enemy – is brought into focus using frame analysis. This analytical approach allows for an examination of both the diffusion of different frames in different newspapers (i.e. the discursive struggles of different power holders) and the journalistic techniques of each newspaper. The research notes that both the Chávez supporters and the opposition are competing to show that they know what the people want and, in
fact, that they are the people. Newspapers report the populist politics in different manners depending on the editorial style. Yet, they are still able to hold on to some journalistic principles such as balanced news reporting by using certain techniques.