Does the Left-Right Ideological Distinction Help Differentiate 'Populist' Communicative Patterns on Social Media? An Analysis of the Facebook Posts of Two 'Populist' Candidates in the 2017 German Federal Election
Abstrakt
The term 'populist actors' vaguely describes certain political parties and figures on the edges of the ideological spectrum. Theoretically, it assumes that there are similar communicative features among right-left populist actors since they are given the same label.
Nevertheless, most studies have indicated that scholars hold contradicting viewpoints on this issue. This dispute continues when scholarly attention is being directed worldwide to the social media communication of right-wing and left-wing populist parties/politicians.
In view of the conflicting insights of previous research, this study investigates whether the conventional left-right distinction makes it possible to differentiate populist communicative patterns found on social media. By proposing a theoretical framework combining populist rhetoric and communication styles, we argue that right-wing and left-wing populist actors are alike in using social media to disseminate such populist rhetoric, while sharing similar communicative patterns.
Combining co-occurrence analysis and social network analysis, this study analyzed Facebook posts made by the radical right AfD top candidate Alice Weidel and the radical left Die Linke top candidate Sahra Wagenknecht during the 2017 federal election period. First, our findings show that all four populist characteristics are present in both candidates' posts.
These posts are framed to mobilize voters by taking up 'antagonistic' identities. Second, the populist discourse tends to foster so-called 'horizontal' conflict (i.e., discrimination against minority social groups for the benefit of others) through a patriotic style, as well as 'vertical' conflict (i.e., 'the people' versus 'the elites', 'the establishment') through a crisis rhetoric style.