Gooien de Media het Politieke Poldermodel op de schop?

The past decade populist parties have changed the Dutch politics. Sometimes the mass media has pointed out as the cause of the upcoming of the populist parties. This thesis investigates the way in which people decide to vote on the Dutch populist party “de Partij voor de Vrijheid (PVV)”. It’s elaborated that three sources will influence the way in which people give meaning to the PVV. Those are the mass media, political information of the PVV and the voter´s own environment. By interviewing ten PVV-voters, the research gives more insight in the contribution of the three sources. The data shows that the PVV-voters are discontented with ‘the compromising culture’ of the Dutch politics, moreover they want a government which strives to get their targets, and they see the Islam as a threat to the society. It’s concluded that the vision of the PVV-voters is not only constituted by the mass media, but also the political information of the PVV and the environment of the PVV-voters contributes in the way PVV-voters give meaning to the populist party. The research also shows that different developments of the mass media have made it more plausible that people support the PVV.