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<p>This article presents the concept of a “crowning moment” and proposes an explanation for the media-savviness of many populist leaders – an under-theorised ability often referred to in existing research. A crowning moment is an instance in which populist leaders take advantage of opportunities that arise in their surroundings to achieve a or multiple major policy, political and/or personal goals through skilful use of the media that earns them recognition as savvy politicians. The concept is exemplified through an analysis of Norwegian Progress Party leader Carl I. Hagen’s role in the 1987 no-confidence motion against the Labour Party government. Stoking up and exploiting media interest in dramatic fashion, Hagen managed to redefine himself as a national political leader and made his party appear responsible.</p>
</abstract>

This article presents the concept of a “crowning moment” and proposes an explanation for the media-savviness of many populist leaders – an under-theorised ability often referred to in existing research. A crowning moment is an instance in which populist leaders take advantage of opportunities that arise in their surroundings to achieve a or multiple major policy, political and/or personal goals through skilful use of the media that earns them recognition as savvy politicians. The concept is exemplified through an analysis of Norwegian Progress Party leader Carl I. Hagen’s role in the 1987 no-confidence motion against the Labour Party government. Stoking up and exploiting media interest in dramatic fashion, Hagen managed to redefine himself as a national political leader and made his party appear responsible.

Crowning Moments: Transformative populist use of the media and the case of Carl I. Hagen

Department of Information Science and Media Studies

Nordicom Review

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

This article presents the concept of a “crowning moment” and proposes an explanation for the media-savviness of many populist leaders – an under-theorised...

Crowning Moments: Transformative populist use of the media and the case of Carl I. Hagen

Published Online: Feb 19, 2019

Page range: 91 - 103

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2019-0005

Keywords
crowning moment, populist use of the media, Carl I. Hagen, populism, strategical media use

© 2019 Hilmar Mjelde, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Crowning Moments: Transformative populist use of the media and the case of Carl I. Hagen

Published Online: Feb 19, 2019

Page range: 91 - 103

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2019-0005

Keywordscrowning moment, populist use of the media, Carl I. Hagen, populism, strategical media use

© 2019 Hilmar Mjelde, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
crowning moment, populist use of the media, Carl I. Hagen, populism, strategical media use