How Right-Wing Populists Engage with Cross-Cutting News on Online Message Boards: The Case of ForoCoches and Vox in Spain

Anecdotal evidence suggests a link between online message boards and the rise of far-right movements, which have achieved growing electoral success globally. Press accounts and scholarship have suggested these message boards help to radicalize like-minded users through exposure to shared media insulated from cross-cutting viewpoints (e.g., Hine et al. 2017 ; Palmer 2019). To better understand what role online message boards might play for supporters of right-wing populist movements, we focus on the Spanish political party Vox and its supporters’ use of the message board ForoCoches, a fan site for car enthusiasts, which became an important platform for the party. Using more than 120,000 messages collected from threads mentioning the party between 2013–2019, we examine the URLs shared to show how mainstream news media events shape the conversation online and how users not only were exposed but deeply engaged with cross-cutting news sources. We argue that the use of sites such as ForoCoches should be viewed in the context of a broader increasingly hybrid political and media landscape where activity online and offline cannot be understood separate from one another. Moreover, our findings suggest that the online political discussions that take place in Vox-related threads on ForoCoches resemble normatively positive deliberative spaces—albeit in this case in support of illiberal political positions. In other words, our findings complicate conventional notions about the benefits of political talk, especially online, as a democratically desirable end in and of itself.

The more you know, the less you like: A comparative study of how news and political conversation shape political knowledge and affective polarization

The contemporary communication ecology contributes to affective polarization by presenting us with extreme exemplars of disliked groups. News exposure that is associated with political discussion networks is related to greater political knowledge, yet unlike previous eras where political knowledge and tolerance went hand in hand, this is no longer the case. We employ a comparative design to examine this idea among two democracies with differing levels of journalistic professionalism and political system: Mexico and the United States. Results show that greater political knowledge is associated with affective polarization, especially for the United States. Furthermore, there was a significant indirect path between media use and affective polarization, mediated through homogeneous political talk and political knowledge, but not in Mexico.

A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF A POLITICAL TALK SHOW ON THE 2019 INDONESIAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Political discourse on the 2019 Indonesian presidential election has been studied from a variety of linguistic viewpoints. However, the pros and cons discourse on Joko Widodo's coalition with Prabowo in spite of their rivalry has not been examined through critical discourse analysis. This study aims to explore the text structure, social cognition, and social context of the pros dan cons discourse as the theme of Mata Najwa talk show. This is a kind of qualitative analytical research using van Dijk’s (1996, 2015) critical discourse analysis framework. The data comprised utterances of the talk show participants examined through three levels of analysis: description of text structure, interpretation of social cognition, and explanation of social context. The study found the use of macrostructure, superstructure, and microstructure as textual elements that support the discourse theme. Meanwhile, the theme selection is influenced by the host’s ideology that serves the theme's pro-coalition stance. The social context underlying the discourse production is the representation of Joko Widodo, who utilized his power to forge a coalition with the opponents through political bargaining. The implication of this study is to increase public awareness on the importance of critically viewing political news so that the negative excesses of political propaganda do not easily provoke them through mass media.

Youth Political Talk in the Changing Media Environment: A Cross-National Typology

While political communication scholarship has long underscored the importance of political talk—casual conversations about news and politics that occur in everyday situations—as a way for citizens to clarify their opinions and as a precursor for political engagement, much of this literature tends to depict political talk as uncomfortable and difficult for citizens. Yet, this focus on the challenging aspects of political talk has been informed predominantly by the US context. To what extent may a different picture emerge when looking across different cultural contexts? And how are these dynamics shaped by the affordances of the multi-platform social media environment? This paper explores these questions through a unique dataset of 122 qualitative interviews conducted between 2016 and 2019 with young people (ages 18–29) from five countries: Argentina, Finland, Israel, Japan, and the United States. Rather than solidifying the avoidance of controversial political talk as the key strategy at the disposal of young people, our findings point at a five-pronged typology of young people, with each type representing a different approach toward political talk. Our typology thus contributes to a more comprehensive and nuanced picture of various approaches towards political talk employed by young people across different countries and in relation to different digital media affordances.

Communication failures: Causes and effects (On the example of political talk shows)

The article examines the causes of communication failures that occur in a TV conversation between journalists and experts invited to the studio of political talk shows. The article analyzes statements in live broadcasts that bring about communication failures; their effects are determined. It is shown that the main reason for communication failures in public space is speech aggression.

Interesting discussion or tiresome bluster? Exploring the social norms of politics among young people on social media

<p>This thesis explores the extent to which talking about politics on Facebook and Twitter is acceptable among young New Zealanders. To investigate the social norms of political discussion on social media, this research has utilised synchronous online focus groups with 27 young New Zealanders aged 16–24. Participants were positive about the presence of politics on Facebook and Twitter, viewing the platforms as a good way of learning more about politics, although they held quite strong views about the way in which people expressed political views. Through utilising the features of social media platforms, participants had a number of ways of dealing with political material on social media they did not agree with or found offensive. Participants also said they sometimes complained about other people's online political behaviour, primarily offline to people who were not involved in the political conversation. In investigating both Facebook and Twitter, this research has attempted to tease out differences between the norms of political talk on social media generally, versus the norms specific to each platform. Twitter was seen by participants as a more appropriate place for politics than Facebook, mostly because people's audiences on the respective platforms were very different. This research has contributed towards a better understanding of an area which has not been well studied, especially outside of North America and Europe. It will be of interest to groups who want to engage young people on social media regarding political issues.</p>

Interesting discussion or tiresome bluster? Exploring the social norms of politics among young people on social media

<p>This thesis explores the extent to which talking about politics on Facebook and Twitter is acceptable among young New Zealanders. To investigate the social norms of political discussion on social media, this research has utilised synchronous online focus groups with 27 young New Zealanders aged 16–24. Participants were positive about the presence of politics on Facebook and Twitter, viewing the platforms as a good way of learning more about politics, although they held quite strong views about the way in which people expressed political views. Through utilising the features of social media platforms, participants had a number of ways of dealing with political material on social media they did not agree with or found offensive. Participants also said they sometimes complained about other people's online political behaviour, primarily offline to people who were not involved in the political conversation. In investigating both Facebook and Twitter, this research has attempted to tease out differences between the norms of political talk on social media generally, versus the norms specific to each platform. Twitter was seen by participants as a more appropriate place for politics than Facebook, mostly because people's audiences on the respective platforms were very different. This research has contributed towards a better understanding of an area which has not been well studied, especially outside of North America and Europe. It will be of interest to groups who want to engage young people on social media regarding political issues.</p>

SERBIAN NATIONAL CULTURE IN POLITICAL TALK OF GOVERNMENT

In this paper we will analyse treatment of Serbian national culture in public speeches and authorised texts of the politicians in power in Serbia. We will adopt political discourse analysis and general text analysis in order to detect modalities of usage of national cultural and messages within studied texts and speeches. Key politicians in the period 2012-2020 are actual President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, who is also leader of Serbian Progressive Party (SPP), Parliament Speaker Ivica Dačić, leader of the Serbian Socialist Party (SSP) and Ana Brnabić, Prime Minister of Serbia, member of SPP. Mentioned three politicians, generally have two attitudes to national culture in examined period. Inaugural speeches, greetings on special occasions and state holidays, elec-tions speeches, public speeches on crucial political issues like on the status of Kos-ovo and Metohija present raw data.