scholarly journals Discovering fake news embedded in the opposing hashtag activism networks on Twitter: #Gunreformnow vs. #NRA

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-153
Author(s):  
Miyoung Chong
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Far Right ◽  
News Frames ◽  
National Rifle Association ◽  
Political Discourses ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
Reliable Source ◽  
In The Beginning

Abstract After Russia’s malicious attempts to influence the 2016 presidential election were revealed, “fake news” gained notoriety and became a popular term in political discourses and related research areas. Empirical research about fake news in diverse settings is in the beginning phase while research has revealed limitedly that “what we know about fake news so far is predominantly based on anecdotal evidence.” The purpose of this study is to investigate fake news included in politically opposing hashtag activism, #Gunreformnow and #NRA (The National Rifle Association). This study attempted to lay out the process of identifying fake news in the hashtag activism network on Twitter as a two-step process: 1) hashtag frequency analysis, top word-pair analysis, and social network analysis and 2) qualitative content analysis. This study discovered several frames through a qualitative approach. One of the prominent fake news frames was intentionally misleading information that attacks the opposing political party and its advocators. The disinformation tweets overall presented far-right wing ideologies and included multiple hashtags and a YouTube video to promote and distribute their agendas while calling for coalition of far-right wing supporters. However, the fake news tweets often failed to provide a reliable source to back up credibility of the content.

scholarly journals Crossing Borders and Building Walls in Right-Wing Uses of the Past

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 104-113
Author(s):  
David Farrell-Banks
Keyword(s):  
Political Agenda ◽  
European Identity ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Political Discourses ◽  
The Past ◽  
European Unity ◽  
European Heritage ◽  
Extremist Groups ◽  
Building Walls

Right-wing populist, nationalist and extremist groups frequently make discursive use of the past to support their political agenda. This contribution briefly examines the use of the 1683 Siege of Vienna in political discourses. It shows how certain parts of European heritage are mobilised globally to present a singular view of European identity as white and Christian. This identity is constructed in opposition to a Muslim and migrant ‘other’. The contribution shows that this notion of European identity is used not as a call for European unity, but to serve nationalistic needs when utilised by far-right groups. Moreover, this piece calls for greater recognition of how heritages are mobilised across borders in the interests of advancing a politics of exclusion and division.

scholarly journals Producing Antipetismo: Media activism and the rise of the radical, nationalist right in contemporary Brazil

2019 ◽  
Vol 82 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart Davis ◽  
Joe Straubhaar
Keyword(s):  
Press Coverage ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Media Activism ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Press ◽  
News Networks ◽  
The Right

When examining the decline of the leftist Partido dos Trabalhadores and the ascension of the right-wing extremist Jair Bolsanaro of the far-right Partido Liberal Social to the 2018 presidency, political scientists David Samuels and Cesar Zucco have argued that this shift is best understood not through positive characteristics of Bolsonaro’s candidacy but through antipetismo [‘anti-PT-ism’], an intensely personal resentment of the Partido dos Trabalhadores. We assert that popular right-wing Facebook groups and networks formed around the communication network WhatsApp-fueled antipetismo by channeling anger originating in the 2013 nationwide protests away from a variety of social, political, and issues and toward a villainous depiction of Partido dos Trabalhadores leaders and valorization of anti-Partido dos Trabalhadores activists like Bolsanaro, as well as some focus on his own conservative, nationalist agenda. To interrogate this assertion, we propose two specific lines of research. The first is a qualitative textual analysis of the social media accounts of two of the most active anti-Partido dos Trabalhadores groups: Vem Pra Rua and O Movimento Brasil Livre. Through close reading of the materials distributed on these sites, we will illustrate how they channeled general unrest into a specifically partisan attack. The next line of research and case will be an examination of the role of mainstream news networks (namely TV Record) and WhatsApp by those campaigning for recently elected president Bolsonaro for a continued negative campaign against left candidates, specifically the Partido dos Trabalhadores, using fake news items like the supposed ‘gay kit’ that was being circulated in schools by the Partido dos Trabalhadores and others on the left to persuade children to become gay. When possible, we will analyze examples of the materials that were circulated that have emerged in the press coverage and will examine the processes that were used to target and persuade people to forward the materials created for the campaign.

scholarly journals Europe’s Anti-immigrant Parties: False Start or Second Wind?

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 230-244
Author(s):  
A. E. YASHLAVSKII
Keyword(s):  
European Countries ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Political Discourses ◽  
National Body ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Government ◽  
West European

The article makes focus on the rise of Western Europe’s far-right  parties which act with anti-immigrant agenda amid 2010s European  migrant crisis. Massive influxes of refugees and migrants have  accumulated huge political significance and triggered off a wide  range of conflicts (both on international and national levels). The  migrant crisis has indicated many social-political challenges for  European countries. The crisis has been synchronous with a rise of popularity of right populist political movements (old ones as well  as new ones), which promote restrictions of immigration etc. At the  same time it cannot be ignored that West European right-wing  populist political movements achieved some success in previous  decades, well ahead of the current migrant crisis. Immigration issue  has been a centerpiece of political discourses of West European right-wing parties (National Front in France, for instance)  since late 1970s – early 1980s. But it is quite obvious that the 2010s migrant crisis became a trigger for revitalization of the far-right  movements which are outspoken critics of the European Union as “a  supra- national body” dictating its conditions to the member  countries. Besides, the crisis gave a boost to a rise of new populist  movements (for example, “Alternative for Germany”). In 2017 the  populist right-wing parties in Europe won the largest support over  the three past decades. Recently the right populist forces appeared  in elections in a number of European countries (Germany, Austria,  France etc.) as tough competitor of traditional mainstream political  parties and won parliamentary representation and/or representation in the government coalitions. Furthermore, these  movements demonstrate attempts to change their image to shift to  political mainstream. However, in the foreseeable future, any  cardinal breakthrough and far-right anti- immigrant parties’ coming  to the power in Western Europe’s coutrnies is hardly possible.

scholarly journals The Pandemic Strategies of the Far-Right Parties in Western Europe

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 94-113
Author(s):  
A. S. Badaeva
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Political Campaigns ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Far Right ◽  
The Government ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
Health Situation ◽  
Further Development ◽  
West European

The author explores the behavior of the West-European far-right parties under the coronavirus crisis circumstances. In the beginning stage of the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020 opposition right-wing nationalist parties tried immediately to take advantage of the difficult health situation and of the following social shock and economic problems. The actions and the rhetoric of these parties varied depending on the each country specific circumstances: number of pandemic casualties, strictness and effectiveness of measures taken by the government, national characteristic. Right-wing nationalist were able to achieve success exactly in those West-European countries, where the society was not enough consolidated. For example, Vlaams Belang in Belgium and Brothers of Italy became very popular. In front of this national cohesion and unity of society have created a formidable opposition to anti-government right-wing agitation. Political campaigns of Scandinavian far-right parties, Alternative for Germany, National Rally and the Freedom Party of Austria were almost ineffective. The current situation is unprecedented and indefinite. All sides of the political process are under tension and they are trying to calculate all possible scenarios for further development of events.

scholarly journals Social representations of sociopolitical groups on r/The_Donald and emergent conflict narratives: A qualitative content analysis

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quinnehtukqut McLamore ◽  
Özden Melis Uluğ
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Race Relations ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
The United States ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Online Spaces ◽  
Conflict Narratives

Social media has been integral for the organization and success of right-wing populist movements in the United States and Europe. Within online communities, discussions take place in which ideologies are formulated, iterated upon, and disseminated. One particular forum, hosted on the popular website reddit.com, r/The_Donald, has received media attention for its political influence. Despite the influence of online spaces in populist, far-right movements, relatively little attention has been paid to qualitative content of discussions that take place within such spaces, including r/The_Donald. Guided by a social representations approach, we analyzed how discussions on r/The_Donald represent sociopolitical groups. We focused on discussions of political affiliations, race relations, immigration, and culture. From a dataset of 8,198 posts, we selected 1,292 segments from 883 unique Reddit usernames and analyzed them using qualitative content analysis. The results showed that the majority of posts discussed liberals, race relations, and conspiracy theories, and in these posts, liberals and liberal ideas were delegitimized and mocked through their representations. These posts represented conservatives through antinomic contrast and comparison to liberals and liberal policies. The meanings of those representations in intergroup relations are discussed.

scholarly journals How the Far-Right Polarises Twitter: 'Highjacking' Hashtags in Times of COVID-19

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philipp Darius ◽  
Fabian Stephany
Keyword(s):  
Political Communication ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Communication Strategy ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Selective Perception ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
Potential Use

Twitter influences political debates. Phenomena like fake news and hate speech show that political discourse on micro-blogging can become strongly polarised by algorithmic enforcement of selective perception. Some political actors actively employ strategies to facilitate polarisation on Twitter, as past contributions show, via strategies of 'hashjacking'. For the example of COVID-19 related hashtags and their retweet networks, we examine the case of partisan accounts of the German far-right party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) and their potential use of 'hashjacking' in May 2020. Our findings indicate that polarisation of political party hashtags has not changed significantly in the last two years. We see that right-wing partisans are actively and effectively polarising the discourse by 'hashjacking' COVID-19 related hashtags, like #CoronaVirusDE or #FlattenTheCurve. This polarisation strategy is dominated by the activity of a limited set of heavy users. The results underline the necessity to understand the dynamics of discourse polarisation, as an active political communication strategy of the far-right, by only a handful of very active accounts.

Magic and Politics

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 5-14
Author(s):  
Sabina Magliocco
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
North America ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
The United States ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Cultural Expression ◽  
Spirit World

This essay introduces a special issue of Nova Religio on magic and politics in the United States in the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election. The articles in this issue address a gap in the literature examining intersections of religion, magic, and politics in contemporary North America. They approach political magic as an essentially religious phenomenon, in that it deals with the spirit world and attempts to motivate human behavior through the use of symbols. Covering a range of practices from the far right to the far left, the articles argue against prevailing scholarly treatments of the use of esoteric technologies as a predominantly right-wing phenomenon, showing how they have also been operationalized by the left in recent history. They showcase the creativity of magic as a form of human cultural expression, and demonstrate how magic coexists with rationality in contemporary western settings.

Jewish Question in the Ideology and Political Practice of Russian Monarchists in the Beginning of the 20th Century

2020 ◽  
Vol 102 ◽  
pp. 232-261
Author(s):  
Igor V. Omeliyanchuk
Keyword(s):  
Jewish Population ◽  
Jewish Question ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Anti Semitism ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
The Right ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
First World

The present article examines the place of the Jewish question in the ideology of the monarchist (right-wing, “black hundred”) parties. In spite of certain ideological differences in the right-wing camp (moderate Rights, Rights and extreme Right-Wing), anti-Semitism was characteristic of all monarchist parties to a certain extent, in any case before the First World War. That fact was reflected in the party documents, resolutions of the monarchist congresses, publications and speeches of the Right-Wing leaders. The suggestions of the monarchists in solving the Jewish questions added up to the preservation and strengthening of the existing restrictions with respect to the Jewish population in the Russian Empire. If in the beginning the restrictions were main in the economic, cultural and everyday life spheres, after the convocation of the State Duma the Rights strived after limiting also the political rights of the Jewish population of the Empire, seeing it as one of the primary guarantees for autocracy preservation in Russia, that was the main political goal of the conservatives.

Main Forms of Propagandistic Activities of the Right-Wing Parties (1904–1914)

2020 ◽  
Vol 102 ◽  
pp. 656-676
Author(s):  
Igor V. Omeliyanchuk
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Periodical Press ◽  
Political Movement ◽  
The People ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Right ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
The 19Th Century

The article examines the main forms and methods of agitation and propagandistic activities of monarchic parties in Russia in the beginning of the 20th century. Among them the author singles out such ones as periodical press, publication of books, brochures and flyers, organization of manifestations, religious processions, public prayers and funeral services, sending deputations to the monarch, organization of public lectures and readings for the people, as well as various philanthropic events. Using various forms of propagandistic activities the monarchists aspired to embrace all social groups and classes of the population in order to organize all-class and all-estate political movement in support of the autocracy. While they gained certain success in promoting their ideology, the Rights, nevertheless, lost to their adversaries from the radical opposition camp, as the monarchists constrained by their conservative ideology, could not promise immediate social and political changes to the population, and that fact was excessively used by their opponents. Moreover, the ideological paradigm of the Right camp expressed in the “Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationality” formula no longer agreed with the social and economic realities of Russia due to modernization processes that were underway in the country from the middle of the 19th century.

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