Stuck in a nativist spiral: Content, selection, and effects of right-wing populists' communication on Facebook

Author(s)
Raffael Heiss, Jörg Matthes
Abstract

Although social media have become important venues for right-wing populist (RWP) campaigns, the content, selection, and effects of RWP messages on social media remain largely unknown. Using content and panel analysis in two studies, we investigated the potential reciprocal relationship between RWP communication on social media and citizens? anti-immigrant attitudes, anti-elitist attitudes, and feelings of anger and anxiety. In Study 1, we analyzed 13,358 Facebook posts from German and Austrian political parties and their leading candidates. Among our results, RWP actors conveyed anti-immigrant and anti-elitist messages more often than non-RWP actors, and anti-immigrant messages especially induced negative emotional responses among followers of RWP actors. In Study 2, our analysis of data from a two-wave panel study with 559 respondents revealed that anti-immigrant attitudes drove selective exposure to RWP content on Facebook, which consequently fueled anti-immigrant attitudes, and that selective exposure to such content increased individuals? anti-elitist attitudes and anxiety.

Organisation(s)
Department of Communication
Journal
Political Communication
Volume
37
Pages
303-328
No. of pages
26
ISSN
1058-4609
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2019.1661890
Publication date
2019
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
508007 Communication science, 508014 Journalism
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Communication, Sociology and Political Science
Portal url
https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/stuck-in-a-nativist-spiral-content-selection-and-effects-of-rightwing-populists-communication-on-facebook(59284443-9071-4726-8ab5-7d36be19a4d7).html