From the fringes into mainstream politics: intermediary networks and movement-party coordination of a global anti-immigration campaign in Germany

Klinger, Ulrike; Bennett, W. Lance; Knüpfer, Curd; Martini, Franziska; Zhang, Xixuan

doi:10.1080/1369118x.2022.2050415

Cited by 17 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…The next step is to generate more refined measures such as the growth of right-wing media networks, the flows of content across them, and volumes of spillover into the mainstream media. There have been some promising efforts in this direction based on the identification of right-wing political sites, along with their network properties and content flows (Yang, 2020; Heft et al, 2021; Klinger et al, 2022). At this point, however, different scholars use different standards for defining radical right media sites and estimating volumes of public engagement.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many digital platforms enable multidirectional flows of communication linking central leadership to the often-extreme periphery in ways that break down traditional media gatekeeping that once kept illiberal ideas out of wide public circulation (Bimber and Gil de Zúñiga, 2020; Klinger et al, 2022). Parties and affiliated political organizations on the right monitor and attempt to manage content flows on political information sites, social media platforms, and legacy media.…”

Section: The Rise Of Illiberal Communication Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This distinctive communication pattern has been described as “asymmetrical polarization” by Benkler et al (2018) in their study of the 2016 US election. Similar interactions between AfD party leaders and the extremist periphery have been observed in Germany as well (Klinger et al, 2022). These patterns of interaction with political information suggest competing communication orders operating within the same nations, often resulting in noise and political instability (Bennett and Pfetsch, 2018).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Communication and democratic erosion: The rise of illiberal public spheres

Bennett,

Kneuer

2023

European Journal of Communication

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In recent years, many once stable democracies have experienced various degrees of disruptive communication, along with the erosion of core institutions such as the press, elections, courts, and the rights of citizens. We propose a framework to compare the logics of illiberal and liberal democratic communication and contrast traditionally dominant communication norms of tolerance, civility, responsiveness, and reasoned resolution of differences in liberal democracies with transgressions of those norms by illiberal rightwing movements, parties, leaders, and voters. We suggest that unlike ‘counter publics’ that seek inclusion in liberal democratic systems, engagement with illiberal communication creates “transgressive publics” that attempt to exclude others in the process of promoting ethnic and religious nationalism. This framework offers a corrective to recent scholarship on democratic public spheres that focuses mainly on why the ideals of more inclusive and egalitarian communication are ever more remote. We shift the focus to the systematic disruptions of mainstream public communication and the authority of public institutions. Our analysis develops a broader theoretical context in which interactions between illiberal leaders and publics occur, with the aim of understanding national variations in how communication systems contribute to democratic erosion.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Rise Of Illiberal Communication Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Communication and democratic erosion: The rise of illiberal public spheres

Bennett,

Kneuer

2023

European Journal of Communication

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“…As a result, multiple studies and scholars have emphasized bots’ potential risks to democratic processes (Ferrara et al, 2016; Woolley, 2016) by promoting polarizing content (Chen, Shi, et al, 2021; Luceri et al, 2019; Stewart et al, 2018), that is often inaccurate or even intentionally misleading. These included studies into bots’ ability to amplify mis- and disinformation from partisan (Chen, Shi, et al, 2021; Shao et al, 2018), fringe (Klinger et al, 2022; Ophir et al, 2022; Walter et al, 2022), and foreign (Walter et al, 2020) sources, often aimed at influencing electoral processes (Bessi & Ferrara, 2016; Ferrara et al, 2020). Others examined relative vulnerability to bots, pointing, for example, to increased susceptibility among Republicans (Yan et al, 2021), and those motivated to endorse conservative conspiracy theories (Miller et al, 2016).…”

Section: Social Bots As An Emergent Entrant In Online Ecosystemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Not All Bots are Created Equal: The Impact of Bots Classification Techniques on Identification of Discursive Behaviors Around the COVID-19 Vaccine and Climate Change

Wang

Walter

Ophir

2023

Social Science Computer Review

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As concerns about social bots online increase, studies have attempted to explore the discourse they produce, and its effects on individuals and the public at large. We argue that the common reliance on aggregated scores of binary classifiers for bot detection may have yielded biased or inaccurate results. To test this possibility, we systematically compare the differences between non-bots and bots using binary and non-binary classifiers (classified into the categories of astroturf, self-declared, spammers, fake followers, and Other). We use two Twitter corpora, about COVID-19 vaccines ( N = 1,697,280) and climate change ( N = 1,062,522). We find that both in terms of volume and thematic content, the use of binary classifiers may hinder, distort, or mask differences between humans and bots, that could only be discerned when observing specific bot types. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

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“…The negotiations were accompanied by sharp debates, in the course of which several countries, like the United States, Austria, and Poland, declared to vote against the compact or to abstain from voting in the United Nations General Assembly in December 2018, where the GCM was formally endorsed (Badell, 2020). Previous studies showed that the German mainstream media largely ignored the GCM for months, while an alliance of RAM, politicians of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) and activists of the Identitarian movement started mobilizing against it (Conrad, 2021;Haller, 2019;ISD, 2018;Klinger et al, 2022;Rone, 2021). The studies disagree, however, whether it was the agitation of the right-wing alliance (Klinger et al, 2022) or the announcement of the Austrian government to quit its support for the treaty (Conrad, 2021;Haller, 2019) that eventually made the German mainstream media pick up the issue.…”

Section: Kika Documentarymentioning

confidence: 99%

Intermedia agenda-setting from the far right? Three case studies on spillover effects by alternative media in Germany

Klawier

2023

Preprint

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Right-wing alternative media can increase their public impact if they succeed to set their issues on the mainstream media’s agenda. In three qualitative case studies, the present article explores whether and how such intermedia agenda-setting occurs in Germany. Special attention is given to spillover effects between different actors, both at the level of attention and tone towards the issues. Furthermore, the analysis of news articles is supplemented with Twitter data to account for the role of social media. Two of the case studies indicate that right-wing alternative media contributed to push pseudo-scandals into the mainstream. The analyses also reveal alternative news outlets with particular agenda-setting power and point to the crucial role of tabloid media as a bridge to the mainstream. The third study, however, which centered on the Global Compact for Migration, presents a case where intermedia agenda-setting failed. Against this background, the article discusses the conditions under which intermedia agenda-setting by right-wing alternative media is likely to occur and how journalists should deal with such attempts.

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From the fringes into mainstream politics: intermediary networks and movement-party coordination of a global anti-immigration campaign in Germany

Cited by 17 publications

References 30 publications

Communication and democratic erosion: The rise of illiberal public spheres

Communication and democratic erosion: The rise of illiberal public spheres

Not All Bots are Created Equal: The Impact of Bots Classification Techniques on Identification of Discursive Behaviors Around the COVID-19 Vaccine and Climate Change

Intermedia agenda-setting from the far right? Three case studies on spillover effects by alternative media in Germany

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