Extreme parties and populism: an analysis of Facebook and Twitter across six countries

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Nicole Ernst - , University of Zurich (Author)
  • Sven Engesser - , Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research, University of Zurich (Author)
  • Florin Büchel - , University of Zurich (Author)
  • Sina Blassnig - , University of Zurich (Author)
  • Frank Esser - , University of Zurich (Author)

Abstract

Parties are adapting to the new digital environment in many ways; however, the precise relations between populist communication and social media are still hardly considered. This study compares populist communication strategies on Twitter and Facebook employed by a broad spectrum of left-wing, center, and right-wing political actors in six Western democracies. We conduct a semi-automated content analysis of politicians’ social media statements (N = 1400) and find that populism manifests itself in a fragmented form and is mostly used by political actors at the extremes of the political spectrum (both right-wing and left-wing), by opposition parties, and on Facebook.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1347-1364
Number of pages18
JournalInformation Communication and Society
Volume20
Issue number9
Publication statusPublished - 2 Sept 2017
Peer-reviewedYes
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

Research priority areas of TU Dresden

Keywords

  • content analysis, online communication, opposition party, politics, Populist communication, social media