Populist disinformation Mapping the discursive connections between online populism and disinformation in the US

The emphasis on a populist opposition between the ‘good’ people and ‘corrupt’ elites is strongly related to the politics of disinformation. More specifically, (right-wing) populists are not only attributing blame to the political elites, but also communicating anti-media sentiments in which the mainstream press is scapegoated for not representing the people. In an era of increasing distrust targeted at mainstream media and established sources of information, ‘fake news’ is increasingly politicised and used as a blame-shifting label to delegitimise political opponents or the press. To enhance our understanding of the relationship between disinformation (here defined as deliberately false or deceptive information) and populism, this chapter conceptualises two relationships between these concepts: (1) blame attributions to the dishonest media as part of the corrupt elites that allegedly mislead the people (the populist fake news label); and (2) the expression of populist ideas using a people-centric, anti-expert, and evidence-free way. Based on content analyses of Donald Trump's Tweets and US citizens engaging with his anti-media sentiments on Facebook, this chapter offers exploratory qualitative evidence on the discursive construction of populist disinformation.