ABSTRACT
The outcomes of elections and referenda across the world, such as election of Donald Trump as president of the United States and the Brexit vote for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union, both in 2016, contributed to growing sense that there was a rise in populist attitudes that would undermine liberal democratic institutions. Gathered in early 2017, the people surveys of internet users show that populism is, indeed, prominent as conventionally defined and, in fact, so prominent that it is difficult to view beliefs and attitudes as extreme or radical in contemporary digital age. This study questions not only deterministic theories of access to political information but also the very conceptualisation and operational definition of populism in the digital age. Thus, polarisation is more likely to be related to echo chambers than populism. But they are not captured by the standard operational definition of populism that the people employed and might be better conceptualised as trends towards polarisation.
