TY - JOUR A1 - Gil de Zúñiga, Homero A1 - Koc Michalska, Karolina A1 - Römmele, Andrea ED - Gil de Zúñiga, Homero T1 - Populism in the era of Twitter: How social media contextualized new insights into an old phenomenon JF - New Media & Society N2 - With the advent of social media, political communication scholars have systematically revised theories and empirical corollaries revolving media use and democracy at large. Interestingly, in about the same period of time, a reinvigorated political populism trend has taken place across different latitudes in the world. This widespread populist movement has expanded regardless of whether these political systems were established democracies, emerging democracies, or societies immersed in political contexts at peril. This essay serves as the introductory piece to a special issue on populism. First, it highlights the ways in which “populism,” being an old phenomenon, has further transpired into the political realm in the era of social media. Second, the essay seeks to better contextualize what populism is and how it has developed within today’s hybrid media society. Finally, this introduction also lays out the ground to six central theoretical and data-driven papers that encapsulate many of the important issues revolving the phenomenon of populism today. KW - - KW - democracy KW - Facebook KW - populism KW - social media KW - Twitter Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444819893978 SN - 1461-4448 SN - 1461-7315 VL - 22 IS - 4 SP - 585 EP - 594 PB - SAGE Publications CY - Sage UK: London, England ER -