Use of Daily News Portals, Some Individual Features, and Acceptance of Populism among Students of the University of Zagreb

The purpose of the paper is to fulfil the findings on populism in the context of Croatian society, with an emphasis on the acceptance of populism among young people as bearers of the future social development. Media, as a form of public opinion, are among the most important sources of relevant insights for the study of the rise of populism. The paper pays special attention to the relationship between the use of daily news portals, and the acceptance of populism. The study was conducted on a two-stage non-probabilistic sample of 1189 students of the University of Zagreb, in order to determine the relationships between students' preferences in general, left-wing and right-wing populism, their habits of using daily news portals, and some individual characteristics. The results show that there is a low but significant correlation between the use of most portals, and the preference for general, left-wing and right-wing populism among students. The correlation between the education of parents with student preferences of left-wing and right-wing populism was found, as well as differences in these preferences with respect to some sociodemographic characteristics, level of study, study orientation, political orientation, religiosity and trust in institutions.