Building extreme right discourses on Twitter for non-campaign periodsinsights from populist leaders across Europe

  1. Rubén Rivas-de-Roca 1
  2. Concha Pérez-Curiel 1
  3. Mar García-Gordillo 1
  1. 1 Departamento de Periodismo II, Universidad de Sevilla
Revista:
Observatorio (OBS*)

ISSN: 1646-5954

Ano de publicación: 2022

Volume: 16

Número: 4

Páxinas: 23-41

Tipo: Artigo

DOI: 10.15847/OBSOBS16420222176 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openAcceso aberto editor

Outras publicacións en: Observatorio (OBS*)

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Resumo

The growing success of extreme right-wing populist parties changed the political state of play in Europe, which has been widely studied by the literature. Populist parties apply a particular communication style, based on simple and non-mediated messages onsocial media that promote distrust in public institutions. However, the ways in which these strategies are applied for non-campaigns weeks remain little addressed by academia, as well as its development in small countries. This study examines how far-right leaders from European countries with different sizes and historical extremist backgrounds used Twitter during a non-campaign period (29 September 2020 to 28 February 2021). Specifically, we analyze the issues (issue frame), strategies (game frame), and propaganda mechanisms employed through a mixture of quantitative and qualitative approaches. The sample includes the messages posted on Twitter (n=1346) by the leaders of the main far-right parties in France (Rassemblement National), Austria (FPÖ), Germany (AfD), Spain (Vox), and Portugal (Chega!). A manual content analysis was applied, allowing comparison of countries with different traditions regarding the Extreme Right. The results show a common pattern of anti-migration messages as the main topic for their communication style, but some differences are found in terms of agenda and propaganda. The most recent parties (AfD, Vox, and Chega!) rarely use Twitter tools, which means leaving behind the interactive capacity of social media; meanwhile, the agenda isless thematic in the Austrian and Portuguese cases. Our research contributes to discussions about the communication practices of far-right populist parties in Europe, identifying trends by country as the binary opposition between the people and the elite is not expressed through the same type of propaganda