ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the decisive role played by the media in contemporary politics, so much so that it is often described as show politics or media politics. Media populism is the most common type of populism among contemporary neo-populisms, its defining trait being a technological structure which influences political participation and social consensus modalities. Media populism is structured around a media technological tool which allows for the very existence of that populism. Media populism produces important changes in the organization of collective mobilization events. The chapter focuses on telepopulism and webpopulism. Telepopulism was the first important form of media populism. One of the most emblematic cases of telepopulism, as stressed by Taguieff, was Silvio Berlusconi's, the tycoon of Italian television channels who also governed Italy for about twenty years. The owner of three television channels, Berlusconi developed a form of social and cultural hegemony at the national level, skilfully using his own television programmes as his only medium.
