Source document: Brno studies in English. 2020, vol. 46, iss. 2, pp. 5-23
Extent
5-23
-
ISSN0524-6881 (print)1805-0867 (online)
Persistent identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5817/BSE2020-2-1
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/143204
Type: Article
Language
English
License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International
Abstract(s)
Recent political events, such as the Brexit or Donald Trump's electoral success, have led to a proliferation of studies focusing on populism nature (Müller 2017; Mudde and Kaltwasser 2017). Part of the literature has also investigated communicative aspects of populism, highlighting how populists are benefitting from the use of social media (Bartlett 2014; Gerbaudo 2018). This research offers further insights on the subject by analyzing populist discourse on Twitter and exploring the correlation between the presence of linguistic features linked to populism, such as emotionalization, simplified rhetoric and intensified claims (Canovan 1999; Heinisch 2008), and tweet popularity. The use of linear mixed effects models revealed a positive correlation between the linguistic elements of interest and tweet popularity, not only in the populist sample, but also in the control group composed by establishment politicians. Surprisingly, reference tweets received more popularity than populist messages when the discursive features analyzed were present.
Document
References:
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[30] Le Pen, Marine (@MLP_officiel) (2016, September 3) "La bataille que nous allons mener est la plus belle, la plus grande: la bataille pour la France!" #Brachay. Accessed on: https://twitter.com/MLP_officiel/status/772021712913399808
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[39] Müller, Jan-Werner (2017) What is Populism? Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
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[42] Otjes, Simon and Tom Louwerse (2015) Populists in parliament: comparing left-wing and right-wing populism in the Netherlands. Political Studies 63 (1), 60–79. https://doi-org.ezproxy.muni.cz/10.1111/1467-9248.12089 | DOI 10.1111/1467-9248.12089
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[46] Salvini, Matteo (@matteosalvinimi) (2016, June 25) Ecco chi sono i veri razzisti! Le tivù lo censurano, fai girare tu. Accessed on: https://twitter.com/matteosalvinimi/status/746642514598367233
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[48] Spina, Stefania (2012) Openpolitica. Milano: FrancoAngeli.
[49] Stanley, Ben (2008) The thin ideology of populism. Journal of Political Ideologies 13 (1), 95–110. | DOI 10.1080/13569310701822289
[50] Stieglitz, Stefan and Linh Dang-Xuan (2013) Emotions and information diffusion in social media – sentiment of microblogs and sharing behavior. Journal of Management Information Systems 29 (4), 217–248. | DOI 10.2753/MIS0742-1222290408
[51] Taggart, Paul (2000) Populism. Buckingham: Open University Press.
[52] Trottier, Daniel and Christian Fuchs (eds.) (2015) Social Media, Politics and the State: Protests, Revolutions, Riots, Crime and Policing in the Age of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube (Vol. 16). New York: Routledge.
[53] White, Peter R. (2001) Appraisal: An Overview. Accessed on: http://www.languageofevaluation.info/appraisal/appraisalguide/framed/frame.htm
[54] Zappavigna, Michele (2011) Ambient affiliation: a linguistic perspective on twitter. New Media & Society 13 (5). 788–806, https://doi-org.ezproxy.muni.cz/10.1177/1461444810385097 | DOI 10.1177/1461444810385097
[2] Anthony, Laurence and Claire Hardaker (2017) FireAnt (Version 1.1.4). Computer Software. Tokyo, Japan: Waseda University. Accessed on: http://www.laurenceanthony.net/software
[3] Aslanidis, Paris (2016) Is populism an ideology? A refutation and a new perspective. Political Studies, 64 (1), 88–104. | DOI 10.1111/1467-9248.12224
[4] Bartlett, Jamie (2014) Populism, social media and democratic strain. In: Sandelind, Clara (ed.), European Populism and Winning the Immigration Debate, 99–114. Accessed on: http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/104297/1/Korr%20igen.pdf
[5] Bates, Douglas, Martin Machler, Ben Bolker and Steve Walker (2015) Fitting linear mixedeffects models using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software 67 (1), 1–48. http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.muni.cz/10.18637/jss.v067.i01
[6] Bos, Linda, Wouter van der Brug and Claes de Vreese (2011) How the media shape perceptions of right-wing populist leaders. Political Communication 28 (2), 182–206. https://doi-org.ezproxy.muni.cz/10.1080/10584609.2011.564605 | DOI 10.1080/10584609.2011.564605
[7] Canovan, Margaret (1999) Trust the people! Populism and the two faces of democracy. Political Studies 47 (1), 2–16. | DOI 10.1111/1467-9248.00184
[8] Carrella, Fabio (2018) Analysis of the correlation between populist discourse and tweet popularity. Colloquium: New Philologies, 3 (2), 27–50. https://doi-org.ezproxy.muni.cz/10.23963/cnp.2018.3.2
[9] Cohen, Nick (2018) "Don't mock the 'hapless' Brexiters – they are still pulling all the strings." The Guardian. March 24, 2018. Accessed on: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/24/dont-mock-hapless-brexiters-try-to-change-their-minds
[10] Cunnings, Ian and Ian Finlayson (2015) Mixed effects modeling and longitudinal data analysis. Advancing Quantitative Methods in Second Language Research, 159–181.
[11] de Vreese, Claes H., Frank Esser, Toril Aalberg, Carsten Reinemann and James Stanyer (2018) Populism as an expression of political communication content and style: a new perspective. The International Journal of Press/Politics 23 (4), 423–438. https://doi-org.ezproxy.muni.cz/10.1177/1940161218790035 | DOI 10.1177/1940161218790035
[12] Engesser, Sven, Nayla Fawzi and Anders Olof Larsson (2017) Populist online communication: introduction to the special issue. Communication & Society 20 (9), 1279–1292. https://doi-org.ezproxy.muni.cz/10.1080/1369118X.2017.1328525
[13] Ernst, Nicole, Sina Blassnig, Sven Engesser, Florin Büchel and Frank Esser (2019) Populists prefer social media over talk shows: an analysis of populist messages and stylistic elements across six countries. Social Media & Society 5 (1), https://doi-org.ezproxy.muni.cz/10.1177/2056305118823358
[14] Farage, Nigel (@Nigel_Farage) (2016, November 3) I now fear every attempt will be made to block or delay triggering Article 50. They have no idea level of public anger they will provoke. Accessed on: https://twitter.com/Nigel_Farage/status/794124251259432960.
[15] Farage, Nigel (@Nigel_Farage) (2016, April 6) Without the internet, the development and growth of UKIP in Britain would have been far tougher. Accessed on: https://twitter.com/Nigel_Farage/status/717672818423566337
[16] Feng, Changyong, Hongyue Wang, Naiji Lu, Tian Chen, Hua He, Ying Lu and Xin M. Tu (2014) Log-transformation and its implications for data analysis. Shanghai Archives of Psychiatry 26 (2), 105–109.
[17] Gelman, Andrew and Jennifer Hill (2007) Data Analysis Using Regression and Multilevel/Hierarchical Models. Cambridge University Press.
[18] Gerbaudo, Paolo (2018) Social media and populism: an elective affinity? Media, Culture & Society 40 (5), 745–753. | DOI 10.1177/0163443718772192
[19] Gries, Stefan Th (2013) Statistics for Linguistics with R. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
[20] Gries, Stefan Th (2015) The most under-used statistical method in corpus linguistics: Multi-level (and mixed-effects) models. Corpora 10 (1), 95–125. | DOI 10.3366/cor.2015.0068
[21] Halliday, Michael, Alexander Kirkwood, Christian Matthiessen and Michael Halliday (2004) An Introduction to Functional Grammar, revised by Christian Matthiessen. London: Hodder Arnold.
[22] Hanley, Jon, Helena Bengtsson and Caelainn Barr (2016) "Across Europe, distrust of mainstream political parties is on the rise". The Guardian. May 25, 2018. Accessed on: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/25/across-europe-distrust-of-mainstream-political-parties-is-on-the-rise
[23] Hawkins, Kirk A. (2010) Venezuela's Chavismo and Populism in Comparative Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[24] Heinisch, Reinhard (2008) Austria: the structure and agency of Austrian populism. In: Albertazzi, Daniele and Duncan McDonnell (eds.), Twenty-first Century Populism, Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 67–83.
[25] Jagers, Jan and Stefaan Walgrave (2007) Populism as political communication style: An empirical study of political parties' discourse in Belgium. European Journal of Political Research 46 (3), 319–345. | DOI 10.1111/j.1475-6765.2006.00690.x
[26] Jamieson, Kathleen H. and Joseph Cappella (2008) Echo Chamber: Rush Limbaugh and the Conservative Media Establishment. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
[27] Krämer, Benjamin (2014) Media populism: a conceptual clarification and some theses on its effects. Communication Theory 24, 42–60. https://doi-org.ezproxy.muni.cz/10.1111/comt.12029. | DOI 10.1111/comt.12029
[28] Kriesi, Hanspeter (2015) Populism. concepts and conditions for its rise in Europe. Comunicazione Politica 16 (2), 175–194.
[29] Kuznetsova, Alexandra, Per B. Brockhoff and Rune H. B. Christensen (2017) lmertest package: tests in linear mixed effects models. Journal of Statistical Software 82 (13), 1–26. https://doi-org.ezproxy.muni.cz/10.18637/jss.v082.i13
[30] Le Pen, Marine (@MLP_officiel) (2016, September 3) "La bataille que nous allons mener est la plus belle, la plus grande: la bataille pour la France!" #Brachay. Accessed on: https://twitter.com/MLP_officiel/status/772021712913399808
[31] Le Pen, Marine (@MLP_officiel) (2017, January 4) 'Les réseaux sociaux permettent de s'adresser directement au peuple. Ma campagne sera innovante en ce domaine.' #VoeuxMLP. Accessed on: https://twitter.com/mlp_officiel/status/816588935711379456
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[33] Martin, James R. and Peter R. White (2005) The Language of Evaluation. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
[34] McCrum, Kirstie (2017) "Nigel Farage is still King UKIP - but Paul Nuttall is learning fast." Newstatesman. February 17, 2017. Accessed on: https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2017/02/nigel-farage-still-king-ukip-paul-nuttall-learning-fast
[35] Mudde, Cas (2004) The populist zeitgeist. Government and opposition 39 (4), 541–563. | DOI 10.1111/j.1477-7053.2004.00135.x
[36] Mudde, Cas (2007) Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[37] Mudde, Cas and Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser (2012) Populism and (liberal) democracy: a framework for analysis. Populism in Europe and the Americas: Threat or corrective for democracy, 1–26.
[38] Mudde, Cas and Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser (2017) Populism: A very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[39] Müller, Jan-Werner (2017) What is Populism? Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
[40] O'Donnell, Mick (2011) UAM CorpusTool (Version 2.8.7). Computer Software. Accessed on: http://www.corpustool.com/index.html
[41] O'Hara, Robert B. and D. Johan Kotze (2010) Do not log‐transform count data. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 1. 118–122. https://doi-org.ezproxy.muni.cz/10.1111/j.2041-210X.2010.00021.x
[42] Otjes, Simon and Tom Louwerse (2015) Populists in parliament: comparing left-wing and right-wing populism in the Netherlands. Political Studies 63 (1), 60–79. https://doi-org.ezproxy.muni.cz/10.1111/1467-9248.12089 | DOI 10.1111/1467-9248.12089
[43] Pariser, Eli (2011) The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. New York, NY: Penguin.
[44] R Core Team (2017) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R foundation for statistical computing. Vienna, Austria. Accessed on: https://www.R-project.org/
[45] Reinemann, Carsten, Toril Aalberg, Frank Esser, Jesper Strömbäck and Claes de Vreese (2007) Populist political communication: toward a model of its causes, forms, and effects. In: Aalberg, T., F. Esser, C. Reinemann, J. Strömbäck, and C. de Vreese (eds.) Populist Political Communication in Europe, London: Routledge, 365–380.
[46] Salvini, Matteo (@matteosalvinimi) (2016, June 25) Ecco chi sono i veri razzisti! Le tivù lo censurano, fai girare tu. Accessed on: https://twitter.com/matteosalvinimi/status/746642514598367233
[47] Shoemaker, Pamela and Akiba A. Cohen (2006) News Around the World Content: Practitioners, and the Public. New York, NY: Routledge.
[48] Spina, Stefania (2012) Openpolitica. Milano: FrancoAngeli.
[49] Stanley, Ben (2008) The thin ideology of populism. Journal of Political Ideologies 13 (1), 95–110. | DOI 10.1080/13569310701822289
[50] Stieglitz, Stefan and Linh Dang-Xuan (2013) Emotions and information diffusion in social media – sentiment of microblogs and sharing behavior. Journal of Management Information Systems 29 (4), 217–248. | DOI 10.2753/MIS0742-1222290408
[51] Taggart, Paul (2000) Populism. Buckingham: Open University Press.
[52] Trottier, Daniel and Christian Fuchs (eds.) (2015) Social Media, Politics and the State: Protests, Revolutions, Riots, Crime and Policing in the Age of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube (Vol. 16). New York: Routledge.
[53] White, Peter R. (2001) Appraisal: An Overview. Accessed on: http://www.languageofevaluation.info/appraisal/appraisalguide/framed/frame.htm
[54] Zappavigna, Michele (2011) Ambient affiliation: a linguistic perspective on twitter. New Media & Society 13 (5). 788–806, https://doi-org.ezproxy.muni.cz/10.1177/1461444810385097 | DOI 10.1177/1461444810385097