Country Images and Identities in Times of Populism: Swiss Media Discourses on the "Stop Mass Immigration” Initiative.

The construction of certain country images and identities is usually studied in relation to public diplomacy, strategic communication, and nation branding practices of state or non-state actors. However, we notice the increased instrumentalization of country images and identities in debates on issues beyond strategic promotional practices, such as those articulated around elections, referenda or migration. Therefore, we analyse the “stop mass immigration” initiative (2014) in Switzerland and how Swiss media constructed country image and identity in relation to migration and populism, a communication phenomenon and ideology discursively articulated by political and media actors (De Vreese et al., 2018). We (1) bridge streams of research that have not been integrated before, (2) propose critical discourse analysis to identify specific discursive strategies (offering insights into alternative methodologies for the study of populist political communication content and style), and (3) highlight the role of media in reproducing populist discourses on country images and identities