Media and the Rise of Right-Wing Populism: Gauging the Role of CNews in Promoting Far-Right Ideology in France

This paper reflects the concept of populism, based on an analysis of a media editorial line and the increasing populist, demagogic discourses present on mainstream media in France. It presents the concept of populism and its current problems, then offers a methodological reflection centered on the desire to emphasize the role of media on the rise of right-wing populism and far-right ideology. The aim is to study the role of media, which can promote populist communication. This study doesn’t focus on contextual factors such as the electoral success of right-wing populist parties; instead, it explores other aspects, such as media editorial line and opinion journalism, largely independent of political reality which can increase the chances of populist rhetoric being included in media coverage. Therefore, this paper offers a brief review of the communicative aspect of populism. It discusses the rise of populist rhetoric in the media in France and the role of the CNews television channel in mobilizing and promoting far-right ideologies in the French political and media landscape. The results highlight how CNews, with its far-right columnists, such as Eric Zemmour, contribute to the rise of right-wing populist rhetoric in the French media landscape; since the increase of its audience coincides with the rise of right-wing populist and far-right rhetoric in the French political spectrum.


Introduction
The recent success of populist movements worldwide has renewed academic in-terest in the phenomenon of populism and its driving forces. The role of the media in promoting right-wing populist rhetoric has been the subject of extended research. Media, disinformation, and populism have attracted significant attention in recent years. The media play a crucial role in the political sphere as they construct or produce information, interact with politicians, and affect political processes at different levels (Hallin & Mancini, 2004). The hypothesis posed is that media coverage plays a crucial role in the rise of right-wing populist rhetoric (Walgrave & de Swert, 2004) and promoting far-right ideology in While assuming that the media play a crucial role in the rise and success of populist movements, there are very few literatures and researches on populist political communication. Indeed, most of the literature in political science neglects the communicative aspect of populism. Therefore, our paper seeks to fill this gap with data from media thematic content analysis of controversial verbal and textual statements on CNews TV set and far-right journalists such as Eric Zemmour. This paper analyzes the thematic included in CNews' editorial line and Eric Zemmour's populist discourses and compares them with right-wing and far-right main thematic. Our study pointed out the growing transformation of the news channel editorial line. The case of CNews is more than evidence of the rising populist rhetoric in mainstream media (Valeurs Actuelles, 2020). This strategy is part of a particular context where far-right and populist parties are more popular and social networks have become alternative media for many people.
The main subject of our study is the communicative aspect of right-wing populism and the role of media in promoting right-wing ideology. Following the framework of discursive opportunities (Gamson, 1988), this study argues that media and political communication may favor specific rambling messages; and the success of far-right and populist parties might also influence the editorial line of mainstream media. Our study focuses on the case of the CNews channel, which has gained in popularity since its creation in 2017. This paper is organized as follows. First, our literature review consisted in developing our theoretical background and documenting the concept of media and

Media and Populism
Several theoretical and empirical studies argue that populist discourses relayed by the media can significantly impact voters' opinions and behaviors (Hameleers et al., 2019). Some researchers say that the electoral success of populist parties cannot be fully explained without considering how the media covers and sometimes disseminates populist rhetoric within the population (Krämer, 2014).
Several studies support that populist communication often uses strongly negative messages that constitute a crisis narrative (Moffitt, 2016b;Moffit & Tormey, 2014). Populist leaders and media paint a dark picture of the situation and explain to their audiences why they should be worried and why they should blame someone or some group of people (Reinemann et al., 2020). Therefore, populist movements see the media as essential political instruments for mobilizing support and maintaining close relationships with the public and private media (Mazzoleni, 2014). On the other hand, the media tend to support populism based on ideological communion, economic advantage, or political calculations (Tumber & Waisbord, 2021). The growing success of populist parties triggered the emergence and growing development of populist rhetoric by mainstream media and politicians (Mudde, 2004).
Almost all liberal democracies are affected by the populism phenomenon, either in the discursive style (Mudde, 2007;Moffitt, 2016a) or as an ideology (Mudde & Kaltwasser, 2013). Furthermore, almost all politicians embrace populism at the level of political communication: While mainstream political parties cannot imitate populist parties in their policies, they imitate populist leaders in their rhetoric, particularly during the elections (Mudde, 2004).
Populism manifests itself on several levels. Public opinion can echo populist positions; mainstream and social media can convey populist rhetoric (Flew & Losifidis, 2019); political parties, movements, and leaders can be associated with populist agendas. The populist movement favors direct contact with "the people", in particular via social media, or during the talk shows in the mainstream media, offers "alternative point of view, or even fake news for a specific audience (Nielsen, 2020

Defining Media
A media is an impersonal medium allowing extensive and collective dissemination of information or opinions, whatever the means: radio, television, the press, books, advertising, etc. It relays communication to a vast number of people without the possibility of personalizing the message. Lisa Gitelman (2006) defines media as "socially realized structures of communication, where structures include both technological forms and their associated protocols, and where communication is a cultural practice, a ritualized collocation of different people on the same mental map, sharing or engaged with popular ontological representation. As such, media are unique and complicated historical subjects. Their histories must be social and cultural" (Gitelman, 2006). Media are also the spaces of action for constructed attempts to connect what is separate (Zielinski, 2006).
They modulate vibrations whose contrasts produce other entities and new fabrics of relationality (Hansen, 2015).
Bruno Latour distinguishes between intermediaries, who are expected to transmit information without transforming it, and mediators, who are known to alter what they change. The communicator is never a pure intermediary; any transmission involves translation, adaptation, mediation (Latour, 2014).
For Jussi Parikka, media are not the substance or the form through which actions take place but an environment of relationships in which time, space, and capacities for action emerge. Therefore, media consist less of mediations or communications between humans than an environment of engagement or relationality for objects, vectors, agency, and processes that enter the human sphere (Parikka, 2011). Thus, media plays an essential role in the transmission of information and, by doing that, influences the social and political sphere (Kivijärvi & Takala, 2020). In France, mainstream media play a crucial role in mobilizing public opinion.
However, the media are confronted with the same drift as that of the political parties. They are giving a voice to "ordinary" people on different thematic generally reserved for the political or economic elite, for experts, leaving people the possibility of giving their own opinion. This politically incorrect is irremediably called "populism".
Today, the word "media" covers very different realities. The distance between an endangered written press and the audio-visual media grows every day; evolution appears under the pressure of this new information vector: the Internet (Pessey, 2014). Indeed, in recent years, mainstream media, outclassed by social networks, tend to succumb to populist rhetoric to attract more audiences (Moffitt, 2018). Through permanent fantasies, xenophobic and Islamophobic statements are irrigating the media landscape spectrum in France. Indeed, populism and the media seem to form an unlikely couple, which influences France's socio-political life.

Concept of Populism
Most researchers define populism as a thin ideology that considers that society is separated between two camps that are both homogeneous and perfectly antagonistic, "the pure people" and "the corrupt elite". Indeed, several researchers agree that populism is a political attitude that consists in dividing society into two entities; on the one hand, there would be the elites, misguided and corrupt, who would be in opposition to the "people" victim and considered as a single entity (Mudde & Kaltwasser, 2018;Camus & Lebourg, 2015). Populist leaders claim to be the spokespersons of people who are by nature right against corrupt elites. Claimed by some as a banner of their defense of people whose sovereignty would be confiscated by a corrupt elite, populism is also an aversion aimed at disqualifying those who advocate a break with the current political and economic system. Populism is undoubtedly one of the most contested concepts in the social sciences, insofar as it creates a sort of "cacophonous" field of research (Dézé, 2004).
However, the concept of populism is so controversial that researchers have not reached a consensus around its definition (de la Torre & Arson, 2013) since "there are no terms more elusive than populism" (Mayer, 2005). Populism has been used in different situations and different periods of history (Taguieff, 1998). Thus, it is complicated to analyze populism, and there are many attempts to define the concept (Dorna, 2003). Populist leaders are skilled communicators, on mainstream media, through the instrumentalization of the press and their particularly effective use of social networks (Krämer & Holtz-Bacha, 2020).
In the book "Perspectives on Populism and the Media" (2020), Benjamin Krämer argues that there are significant implications for defining populism as either an ideology, a style, a discourse or a concept and that "populism is often defined about the distinctions it makes or the antagonisms it creates" (Krämer & Holtz-Bacha, 2020). Benjamin Krämer classifies the definitions of populism into four categories. First, he defines populism as an ideology. He believes populism as an ideology is a concept rarely used in traditional communication research but is used more substantially. For example, he argues that populism is used as a variable measuring someone's position on the left-right axis of the political spectrum (Krämer & Holtz-Bacha, 2020).
Secondly, the discursive approach of populism is often associated with the work of Ernesto Laclau (2008). It analyzed the general logic of populism by which the historically contingent unmet demands of populations are articulated in such a way as to treat them as equivalent in the face of antagonism between the people and the elite (Krämer & Holtz-Bacha, 2020 (Casullo, 2020;Moffitt, 2016a), language, rhetoric, and argumentation (Ekström et al., 2018).
Pierre-André Taguieff defines populism as "a political style based on the appeal to the people as well as on the worship and defense of the people, compatible in principle with all political ideologies" (Taguieff, 2007). Finally, according to Krämer, populism can be defined as a strategy. This definition is often seen as an alternative approach. However, while this approach may seem natural in populism and the media, it is often not elaborated very explicitly. Populism is perceived as "a specific way of competing and exercising political power" (Weyland, 2021), rather opportunistic in terms of politics but a strategy that aims to gain the support of the masses around a charismatic leader (Krämer & Holtz-Bacha, 2020). Nayla Fawzi pointed out the paradoxical relationship between populism and the media. On the one hand, the media is often cited as an essential factor in the rise of populism in modern democracies (Krämer & Holtz-Bacha, 2020). They offer platforms of opportunities for populist leaders and columnists. A populist logic that includes provocative statements is often made by a populist leader or a polemicist editorialist (Mazzoleni, 2014). On the other hand, there are often criticisms towards the mainstream media by populist leaders (Krämer & Holtz-Bacha, 2020). In the United States, former US President Donald Trump constantly criticizes the media for their bias and accuses them of being "fakes" (Krämer & Holtz-Bacha, 2020).
For populism, a consensus seems to be developing around certain essential elements, which can be reflected in political positions and communicative discourse (Krämer, 2018). The first important element that characterizes populism is supposedly homogeneous people who are claimed to be suffering, neglected, disadvantaged, and even threatened. Putting these 'people' first is the most fundamental perspective of populism (Mudde, 2004). Consequently, populism emphasizes the importance of the "people" as in-group and favors identification. It makes the in-group and its situation the critical point of reference in the political discourse (Laclau, 2008).
Pierre-Andre Taguieff (1998) distinguishes two types of populism in Europe: reactionary (protestor) populism and national-populism (identity). Reactionary populism is expressed through a vote, a party, or a mobilization. It is possible to identify it with an ideological-political style. A political movement can be called reactionary populist when the motivations for the rally are dissatisfaction and discontent (González-Ruibal, González, & Criado-Boado, 2018). This can be observed, for example, through demonstrations, involvement in protest movements, rejections, or abstention during the elections (Aron & Superi, 2021). A protest vote can be characterized as a vote against someone or a system. This type of vote is also qualified to express a crisis of representation or confidence in political representatives (Taguieff, 2012).
The second type of populism is the one that focuses on the nationalist or ethnic-nationalist aspect (Bonikowski, 2017), and it is called national-populism or  (Spruyt, Keppens, & Van Droogenbroeck, 2016). Right-wing populists stigmatize minorities and immigrants who are supposed to represent a threat to the natives (Jamin, 2017).
Furthermore, national-populists denounce the elites accused of being the origin of the problem (Taguieff, 2012).

Methodology
Before developing our methodology, let's emphasize our problem: what is the role of the CNews channel on the rise of right-wing populism in France? CNews seems to become the primary tool of communication for the far-right and right-wing movements in France. To answer our research question and test our hypothesis, the work of Pierre Paillé and Alex Mucchielli, "L'analyse qualitative en sciences Humaine et Sociales" (2008), allowed us to develop our research method. Among the strategies proposed by the authors, we have opted for the thematic content analysis (TCA). Thematic analysis is a method of analysis consisting in "identifying, in verbal or textual expressions, general recurring themes which appear under various and more concrete contents" (Mucchielli, 1996). In other words, the thematic analysis consists of the identification, grouping, the discursive examination of the themes addressed in a corpus (Paillé & Mucchielli, 2012

Analyzing CNews Editorial Line
Mainstream media have gone through significant changes in the last few decades. These changes have included radicalizing their editorial line and disseminating populist messages in their news coverage (Esser et al., 2017). The mainstream media's role in the rise of right-wing populism in Europe and the United

A. G. Abdoul-Bagui Open Journal of Political Science
States is the subject of heated debate and research, as they are the primary communication structure. In recent years, media has become an essential communication tool to convey populist rhetoric.
Europe has been facing a phenomenon of "rise" or even populist "danger in recent years. In France, the CNews channel is a perfect example of right-wing populism in the media.
Driven by two TV shows, "L'Heure des Pros" and "Face à l'Info", according to data from Mediametrie, an organization founded in 1985 with the aim of mea-suring audiences and carrying out marketing studies on French media, whether television, radio, cinema or the Internet, the CNews channel saw its au- News channels have been shifting from news platforms into open debate and news analysis platforms in recent years. They are no more only simple relays of information; they are participating in public debate as well. In July 2020, Le Figaro headlined in an article entitled plus d'opinion et moins de "robinet à info" à la television (Le Figaro, 2020) that literary means more opinion and less news on TV channels. However, this strategy arouses heavy criticism. Marc-Olivier Fogiel, the head of BFMTV, another French TV news, in an interview with Le Parisien, in July 2020, described CNews as "a right-wing, and divisive opinion channel" (Valeurs Actuelles & Juillet, 2020). For several critics, CNews is the French version of Fox News (Liberation, 2021a). According to journalist Ivan Rioufol, there was a need for fresh air, and the public need something new.
The process of the radicalization of CNews' editorial line appears to be logical as the main topics of concern among the French population are developed at the right of the political spectrum. The right-wing rise from the people's discomfort, showed that CNews is the channel that grants the most audiences to far-right guests. According to the data collected by Liberation (Liberation, 2021b), far-right guests represented more than 36% of the total guests over one year.
Left-wing parties represent only 17% of CNews guests, while they represent 25% of political guests.

Eric Zemmour's Communication Strategy and His Impact on CNews Editorial Line
According to François Jost, a semiologist, media specialist, "there is a shift into Outgroup exclusion is central to right-wing populist ideology and generally refers to ethnic or religious minorities such as refugees, immigrants, or Muslims.
Populists try to establish the image of a society in crisis and portray exogroups as a threat to the in-group. They refer to a heartland, an emotional construct of idealized past times where the people's will be implemented, and populist outgroups are marginalized (Taggart, 2000). Nowadays, in France, Eric Zemmour is one of the prominent figures of the right-wing populism and far-right, and its presence in CNews sets to boost the channel audiences and the rise of populism in the media (La Croix, 2019).
Stigmatizing minorities and creating polemic is the primary strategy used by Eric Zemmour to draw an audience to the CNews channel. In 2019, he argues that all French problems are aggravated by immigration and Islam" (Liberation, 2019) and announces that he shares Renaud Camus' conspiracy theory of the "great replacement". Furthermore, Eric Zemmour evoked an "occupation", a "reversed colonization", and the "extermination" of "white heterosexual Catholic man" (Liberation, 2019). Several complaints were filed against Eric Zemmour after this discourse.   Eric Zemmour plays the game of division to boost far-right ideology. He enjoys strong notoriety in the French media landscape for his ability to create debate through divisive statements, mainly on national identity and security issues.
Thus, CNews becomes, for him and other far-right journalists, a leading platform. With his radical position on identity, security, Islam, and migration, Éric Zemmour has become controversial. Thanks to the CNews channel, he manages to disseminate his ideologies massively.

Conclusion
This study has shown that a media influenced by the rise of national populism and the growing success of alternative media, such as social networks, adopt a far-right editorial line. This study found proximity between CNews and right-wing and far-right ideology in France, which may inform future research on populism and media. We demonstrated that media editorial lines matter when it comes to gaining an audience. They don't hesitate to recruit polemist journalists close to the far-right and use populist rhetoric in their news coverage.

Conflicts of Interest
The author declares no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.