“Countering Populist Discourse in the European Union”
Manipulation and Populism in the European Union
About the conference
The annual conference of the Jean Monnet Module POPULIST-GAMEMODE brings together, over three days, researchers, journalists, professors, and students around a theme of critical importance for contemporary democracies – the dynamics of populist discourse and manipulation strategies in the European Union.
The 2026 edition focuses on the intersection between populism and the mechanisms of informational manipulation. The programme examines recent discursive transformations alongside the institutional, media, and educational responses that seek to restore the legitimacy of public deliberation. Participants will engage with comparative case studies from EU member states, with particular attention to lessons from the 2024 European Parliament elections, the rise of disinformation ecosystems, and the strategies by which democratic institutions and civil society respond.
The conference is hosted by the Faculty of History and Philosophy of Babeș-Bolyai University and runs under the Jean Monnet Module POPULIST-GAMEMODE, funded by the European Union through the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA).
Programme outline
Abstract & speaker bio
The talk argues that the rise of Trump and the MAGA movement cannot be understood without first explaining how the Right captured YouTube and podcasting in the mid-2010s. It offers a historical account of that transformation, tracing how online video – once seen as an open, even liberal, experimental media space – came to be dominated by right-wing content creators and alternative media networks. Rather than treating influencers and podcasting as recent or purely technological developments, this book situates them within a broader shift in the U.S. media system, as younger audiences moved away from cable news toward online platforms.
YouTube’s open digital infrastructure proved especially consequential, enabling a new generation of “ideological entrepreneurs,” including Alex Jones, Cenk Uygur, and Joe Rogan, to build large, loyal audiences outside the institutional constraints of traditional journalism. During the watershed presidential election of 2016, the biggest names of political YouTube mobilized their fans to support the “outsider” campaigns of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, and, in the end, reshaped our national political culture in the mold of militant online subcultures. By integrating quantitative, archival, and qualitative methods, this mixed approach maps the media reach of these channels while interpreting them as cultural systems grounded in the seemingly trans-partisan, “para-political” discourses of populism, nationalism, and “deep-state” conspiracy theories.
About the speakerReece Peck is an Associate Professor at the College of Staten Island and the CUNY Graduate Center and the author of Fox Populism: Branding Conservatism as Working Class (Cambridge). His expertise lies in populist political rhetoric, partisan media, tabloid journalism, and class politics. His recent research examines populist-partisan channels on YouTube, encompassing both left- and right-wing perspectives. Peck has provided commentary for outlets such as NBC, CNN, and The New York Times. His writing has appeared in popular outlets like The Hill and Jacobin.
- Panel I Electoral Discourse and Digital Populism – Platforms, Rhetorics, and Narratives of Mobilisation
- Panel II Anti-Pluralism, Counter-Democracy, and the Crisis of Participation
- Panel III Information Warfare, Foreign Propaganda, and Institutional Responses
- Panel IV Critical Thinking, Fallacies, and the Rule of Law
Conference resources
Programme · Abstracts · Policy outputs · Media
The 2026 conference brings together the academic team running the Jean Monnet Module with invited scholars .
View teamNineteen accepted papers across four thematic panels, with full abstracts now published.
Read abstractsDay 3 WSD 3×3 demonstrative debate on populism, organised by the Argumentum Debate Club.
See debate pagePolicy briefs and recommendations developed within the Jean Monnet Module.
Browse outputsPhoto galleries from the three conference days, the TVR Cluj broadcast, and the full opening address.
View mediaSpeakers and conveners
Demonstrative debate
A pedagogic exercise in deliberative democracy
The third day of the conference closes with a structured student demonstrative debate. Two teams of three speakers argue PRO and CONTRA on a single contested motion concerning populism, manipulative communication and democratic resilience in the European Union. The exercise is not competitive in the conventional sense – there is no winning side, no league table – it is a public demonstration of how arguments are built, examined and rebutted, in front of an audience of conference participants.
The format is World Schools Debate (WSD), 3×3 variant – three speakers per team, three timed substantive speeches per side, alternating between PRO and CONTRA, followed by a reply speech from each team. The motion of the 2026 edition addresses whether the rise of populism functions as a corrective symptom for stagnant liberal democracies.
Convener: Senior Lecturer Paul Popa (UBB), together with the Argumentum Debate Club of the Faculty of History and Philosophy
Logistics & practical information
Venue
Faculty of History and Philosophy, Babeș-Bolyai University. The official opening and keynote on Day 1 take place in Aula Ferdinand I. Specific rooms for the academic panels, workshops, and the demonstrative debate will be communicated to registered participants closer to the conference date.
Coffee breaks
Coffee breaks are provided for registered participants on all three days.
Working language
The working languages of the conference are Romanian and English. No simultaneous interpretation will be provided.
Participation fee
Participation is free of charge – the conference is fully funded by the Jean Monnet Module POPULIST-GAMEMODE.