Kibice Lecha Poznań a władze miasta
The City Authorities and Fans of the Lech Poznań Soccer Club

The Recontextualization of Populist Topoi in New and Old Media

Summary/Abstract: This article is devoted to the question of the recontextualization of populist topoi in the public sphere. Recontextualization is a process by which a change in the author, recipient, or context of a communication alters its meaning. Populism is understood as a discursive strategy in reference to a limited number of topoi, such as values (for instance, freedom); criticism of authority; appeals to emotions (for example, the sense of threat and fear); and reference to national identity and history to obtain social support. The authors of the article analyze how these topoi change during their flow between various channels of communication: the internet forum of the Lech Poznań fan club, the local press (Głos Wielkopolski and a local supplement to Gazeta Wyborcza), the blog of the city mayor, and the facebook page of a municipal official. The research, based on a historical, critical analysis of the discourse, shows that when the press and local politicians’ discuss topics with the fan forum, the result is the legitimation of the fan forum’s position and its broader effect in the public sphere.

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