Most political science research is concerned with the supply side of politics, i. e. the ability of political actors to attract supporters; instead, citizenship research is frequently interested in politics’ demand side, i. e. what citizens ask from politicians and to what extent are they satisfied with party supply. The present study addresses the evaluation of political parties and politicians by the Portuguese citizenry on the basis of a longitudinal analysis of post-electoral surveys as well as other quantitative data allowing us to measure to which extent such evaluation fits the features of the “crisis of political representation” described in extant literature (Porras Nadales 1996). Indeed, in a very recent article on the concept of Democracy, the Greek political philosopher and politician Georges Contogeorgis brings the issue of the crisis of political representation into focus, by reminding us that “the initial political regime of classic Athens ceased to be fully democratic when it stopped being “the citizens’ assembly” to become increasingly a matter of representation, which is by its composition if not by definition an oligarchic institution distinct from direct participation in the polity. And that was why democracy left Athens in the early 4th century bc” (Contogeorgis 2017).

Interpretive journalism has been defined in extant research as a style of news reporting that is opposed to descriptive journalism. Rather than simply describing what happened and providing source-driven and fact-focused accounts, it provides journalistic interpretation and analysis through explanations, evaluations, contextualizations, or speculations by the journalist. The prominent role of the journalist in news coverage is linked to the disbelief in value-free facts and in interest-free sources, thus making it necessary to explain the context and interpret the relevance and impact of facts, events, and statements.

Aiming to shed light on why Facebook users react to certain events and news stories more than to others, this study analyses their reactions to different events and to the media coverage of those events. The case selection includes six events covered by two newspapers from four countries: France, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. The research design combines an original content analysis of news media outlets’ posts with an analysis of the reactions that these posts have generated from Facebook users—likes, shares and comments—to assess whether and how the nature of events and the characteristics of the news content contribute to explaining the engagement of Facebook users with the news. The data analysis indicated that the decisions to like, share or comment were not driven by the same factors. Unexpected events showed significance, at different levels, for all kinds of reactions to news. Conversely, the specific features of news content only slightly affected the levels of liking and sharing. Facebook users were more likely to comment on news adhering to known criteria for news values, such as negativity or personalization.

There exists a gap in research on populism which tends to focus on politicians rather than on the people. This research addresses that by assessing the prevalence of populism and analyses citizens’ populist discourse in online comments in Portugal and Spain. The methodological approach is based on quantitative content analysis and co-occurrence textual analysis. The main findings point to a similar salience of anti-elitism in both countries, despite the differ- ent levels of electoral success of populist parties. These findings suggest that more attention should be paid to the views of citizens in populism research.