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This chapter for the first time shows what populist and non-populist politicians think about the rise and the success of populism and how they respond and interpret this political reality. The chapter examines the reactions of mainstream politicians to the rise of populism and of populist politicians to established politics in 11 countries. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews with some 50 politicians, the chapter explores popular definitions of populism; reasons for popularity; issues related to populism; consequences of populism; and perceptions of media support for populism. It finds that populism is seen by most mainstream politicians as a threat to the political and social order and something that needs to be challenged, while populists are keen to show how out of touch mainstream politics is. When asked for the reasons for populist success, politicians mainly point to the malfunctioning of established democratic institutions, including mainstream political parties, in addressing problems and producing convincing discourses and solutions. Politicians generally agree that the media are an important part of the equation in explaining populist success, although there is little consensus on this. Overall, there are no clear, discernible regional patterns. Instead, national contexts seem to play a major role for the workings of populism as viewed by the interviewed politicians.

This chapter for the first time shows how journalists react to populist politicians and movements and what they think about them. It examines the reactions of journalists in serious and popular media to the presence of populism in 13 countries. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews with around 50 journalists, the chapter explores popular definitions of populism; reasons for popularity; issues related to populism; consequences of populism; and perceptions of media support for populism. The research shows that while journalists do not agree on a single definition of populism, they see the phenomenon as a negative force with detrimental consequences for European democracies. Journalists identify a number of reasons for the rise of populism; most often mentioned are immigration and economic issues, alongside the effective communication of populist politicians. There are no strong regional patterns of perceptions of populism nor systematic differences between journalists from different types of media outlets. Rather, there are commonalities in more general perceptions of populism that cross nations and differences in more specific questions that point to the relevance of specific national experiences, situations, and circumstances.

Although populist communication has become pervasive throughout Europe, many important questions on its political consequences remain unanswered. First, previous research has neglected the differential effects of populist communication on the left and right. Second, internationally comparative studies are missing. Finally, previous research mostly studied attitudinal outcomes, neglecting behavioral effects. To address these key issues, this paper draws on a unique, extensive, and comparative experiment in 16 European countries (N = 15,412) to test the effects of populist communication on political engagement. The findings show that anti-elitist populism has the strongest mobilizing and anti-immigrant messages the strongest demobilizing effects. Moreover, national conditions such as the level of unemployment and the electoral success of the populist left and right condition the impact of populist communication. These findings provide important insights into the persuasiveness of populist messages spread throughout the European continent.

Supplemental material, ONLINE_APPENDIX_(1) for Start Spreading the News: A Comparative Experiment on the Effects of Populist Communication on Political Engagement in Sixteen European Countries by Michael Hameleers, Linda Bos, Nayla Fawzi, Carsten Reinemann, Ioannis Andreadis, Nicoleta Corbu, Christian Schemer, Anne Schulz, Tamir Shaefer, Toril Aalberg, Sofia Axelsson, Rosa Berganza, Cristina Cremonesi, Stefan Dahlberg, Claes H. de Vreese, Agnieszka Hess, Evangelia Kartsounidou, Dominika Kasprowicz, Joerg Matthes, Elena Negrea-Busuioc, Signe Ringdal, Susana Salgado, Karen Sanders, Desirée Schmuck, Jesper Stromback, Jane Suiter, Hajo Boomgaarden, Keren Tenenboim-Weinblatt and Naama Weiss-Yaniv in The International Journal of Press/Politics

Raising the qualification level for preschool staff is often seen by policymakers as a means of improving the quality of preschool. However, research examining the relation between qualifications of preschool staff and preschool quality has given inconsistent results. This suggests that one’s competence as a teacher is not necessarily reflected by one’s level of teacher qualification. The aim of this study was to contribute to knowledge about preschool teacher competence and its relation to education and practice. This was accomplished through documenting and examining perspectives on preschool teacher competence from currently enrolled Swedish preschool teacher students and recently graduated Swedish preschool teachers, who have prior work experience in early childhood education. In particular, this study focused on gaining a deeper understanding of which competences preschool teacher students and preschool teachers attribute to their education. Interviews were conducted with one preschool teacher education student and two recently graduated preschool teachers. The findings showed three competences reported as important by the participants: critical (self-)reflection, the competence to listen to the children, and the competence to care. Moreover, the participants believed that being confident in one’s profession, knowing why they are doing what they are doing, and the competence to reflect are competences gained in preschool teacher education. Lastly, the participants described a connection between theory and practice, which suggest that students with prior work experience do not experience a ‘reality gap’ between their education and the practical field. The research conducted in this study contributes to what is known about teacher competence and, more specifically, it gives more insight into the development of competence in preschool teacher education.

En: Doxa Comunicación: revista interdisciplinar de estudios de comunicación y ciencias sociales. e-ISSN 2386-3978 n. XXVII, 2018, pp. 63-80 El presente trabajo analiza la percepción de los universitarios sobre la petición de disculpas de los políticos españoles cuyo objetivo, en la mayoría de ocasiones, responde a estrategias de restauración de su imagen. La investigación se centra en conocer si cumplen su objetivo este tipo de discursos, evaluando la efectividad de la petición de disculpas y conocer las acciones reprochables de los políticos que tienen mayor y menor permisividad para los encuestados. Se ha establecido una metodología cuantitativa y técnica de encuestas online a una muestra representativa de 385 casos extraídos, de forma estratificada por Comunidades Autónomas y segmentadas por sexo, de un universo de 1.329.109 estudiantes universitarios en España, con un margen de error del 5 % y un nivel de confianza del 95 %. Entre las principales conclusiones obtenidas encontramos la efectividad y el impacto positivo de las disculpas como estrategia de restauración de imagen de los políticos. Pese a ello, no basta el discurso como elemento único, sino, que se requiere de acciones complementarias para conseguir completa efectividad de la petición de disculpas con distinción en variables independientes como el sexo, la ideología, la intención de voto, la auto identificación política y la religión. This paper analyzes the perception of University Students about the Apologies of Spanish politicians whose objective, in most cases, responds to Image Restoration Strategies. The research focuses on knowing if this type of discourse meets its objective, evaluating the effectiveness of the apology speech and knowing which wrongful events are more likely to be forgiven by the audience. We’ve used a quantitative methodology with online surveys. It has been established for a representative sample of 385 cases extracted, stratified by regions and segmented by sex, of a universe of 1,329,109 university students in Spain, with a margin of error of 5 % and a confidence level of 95%. Among the main conclusions, we found the effectiveness and the positive impact of Apologies as a strategy to restore the image of politicians. Despite of this, discourse is not enough, rather, it requires complementary actions to achieve full effectiveness of the Apologies with distinction in independent variables such as sex, ideology, voting intention, political self-identification and religion.

Populist political parties have become a key feature of the European political landscape. In addition to claiming to be identified with the people, many of these parties are characterised by exclusionary narratives which centre on groups such as immigrants and religious minorities, a feature considered by many analysts as specific to right-wing populism. Left-wing populism is frequently defined as sharing right-wing populism's identification with the people and its anti-elitism but not its attachment to exclusionary narratives. This study joins other recent work in challenging that assumption, providing evidence for the contention that anti-elitism is also a form of excluding populist communication.\ud Using Van Dijk's methodological approach to the analysis of the discursive positioning of ‘Us/Them’ and elements of Burke's dramatistic pentad, this article examines the party and electoral communication of Podemos, the self-described, left-wing populist Spanish political party, from its foundation in January 2014 up until the close of the European Union parliamentary election campaign in May 2014. The study shows that an exclusionary narrative was integral to Podemos’ campaign communication in that a group of people identified as the caste (la casta) constituted the stigmatised out-group in contraposition to the in-group of the ‘people’ which included immigrants and the leaders of Podemos. This suggests that populist parties or politicians of all ideological commitments stripes may be characterised by exclusionary and stigmatising narratives.

Exploring the tendon proteome is a challenging but important task for understanding the mechanisms of physiological/pathological processes during ageing and disease and for the development of new treatments. Several extraction methods have been utilised for tendon mass spectrometry, however different extraction methods have not been simultaneously compared. In the present study we compared protein extraction in tendon with two chaotropic agents, guanidine hydrochloride (GnHCl) and urea, a detergent, RapiGest™, and their combinations for shotgun mass spectrometry. An initial proteomic analysis was performed following urea, GnHCl, and RapiGest™ extraction of equine superficial digital flexor tendon (SDFT) tissue. Subsequently, another proteomic analysis was performed following extraction with GnHCl, Rapigest™, and their combinations. Between the two chaotropic agents, GnHCl extracted more proteins, whilst a greater number of proteins were solely identified after Rapigest™ extraction. Protein extraction with a combination of GnHCl followed by RapiGest™ on the insoluble pellet demonstrated, after label-free quantification, increased abundance of identified collagen proteins and low sample to sample variability. In contrast, GnHCl extraction on its own showed increased abundance of identified proteoglycans and cellular proteins. Therefore, the selection of protein extraction method for tendon tissue for mass spectrometry analysis should reflect the focus of the study.

Adults (either mothers or strangers) presented unfamiliar foods to 1- to 4-year-olds individually in their homes. Childrens' acceptance of the food was examined when the adults were eating and when they were simply offering the food. It was concluded that social facilitation could account for the data obtained. (Author/GO)