Fox Populism

Fox Populism offers fresh insights into why the Fox News Channel has been both commercially successful and politically effective. Where existing explanations of Fox's appeal have stressed the network's conservative editorial slant, Reece Peck sheds light on the importance of style as a generative mode of ideology. The book traces the historical development of Fox's counter-elite news brand and reveals how its iconoclastic news style was crafted by fusing two class-based traditions of American public culture: one native to the politics in populism and one native to the news field in tabloid journalism. Using the network's coverage of the late-2000s economic crisis as the book's principal case study, Peck then shows how style is deployed as a political tool to frame news events. A close analysis of top-rated programs reveals how Fox hails its audience as 'the real Americans' and successfully represents narrow, conservative political demands as popular and universal.

'The election of a populist, tabloid-friendly, norm-smashing reality television host might have shocked most American intellectuals - but it seems safe to say it would not have shocked Reece Peck. This brilliant, lucid, and wide-ranging book shines a light on Fox News and the larger media taste culture that helped propel Donald Trump to the Presidency. Essential.' C. W. Anderson, University of Leeds, 'Reece Peck's Fox Populism is a deeply insightful study of the way Fox news has transformed media and politics in America. It is crucial reading for anyone interested in understanding the role of media and the nature of political hegemony in the new age of populist politics.' Daniel C. Hallin, University of California, San Diego, 'Fox's style is its politics', writes Reece Peck. Drawing on substantial research, Peck develops this important insight into a convincing demonstration that Fox News draws its power from a percussive, battering-ram style, promoting the notion that a he-man performs conservatism with his fists.' Todd Gitlin, Chair, Ph. D. Program in Communications, Columbia University, New York, 'Fox Populism establishes Peck as a nuanced authority on Fox News.' Beejay Silcox, The Times Literary Supplement, 'The most important examination of Fox News published to date … a far-reaching illumination of the role Fox has played in rewriting the terms of American conservatism and in reshaping the nature of news itself … Peck argues compellingly that Fox emerges directly from the tabloid sphere - Rupert Murdoch's global print empire being only one piece of that equation - and as such amplifies the tabloid emphasis on working-class taste cultures.' Geoffrey Baym, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly

Reece Peck is Assistant Professor of Media Culture at College of Staten Island, City University of New York (CUNY). He provides commentary on media and politics to news organizations, including New York magazine and the AFP.