Populism 2.0 in the Spanish public sphere through Twitter

The rise of right-wing populism raises growing concern about the health of representative democracies. In Spain, the emergence of VOX on the political scene has meant the end of Spanish exceptionalism, in addition to conditioning the political and media agenda as well as forcing other political part...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Arroyo-Almaraz, Isidro, Pino Ortega, Francisco del, Vicente-Fernández, Pilar
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repositorio:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:idus.us.es:11441/155637
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/11441/155637
https://doi.org/10.12795/Comunicacion.2023.v21.i01.06
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Populism
VOX
Political discourse
Social media
Twitter
Populismo
Discurso político
Redes sociales
Descripción
Sumario:The rise of right-wing populism raises growing concern about the health of representative democracies. In Spain, the emergence of VOX on the political scene has meant the end of Spanish exceptionalism, in addition to conditioning the political and media agenda as well as forcing other political parties to reconsider their strategies. Nowadays, social media occupy a central place in social and political life. Populism has been fuelled by the proliferation of social media such as Twitter, which brings together on the same platform the protagonists of the political debate and spreads messages in a fragmented way and out of the media’s control. This study aims to understand Santiago Abascal’s discursive strategy through a qualitative discourse analysis of his posts on Twitter as VOX’s leader during a decisive period for the party. The results indicate how his discourse focuses on building a populist political party that, in addition to basing its appeal on identifying threats and enemies, projects a heroic image of the party through the exaltation of victimization and the proclamation of its achievements using ideological terminology and collective imagination. The study confirms the importance of sentimental and emotional discourse and the role of the party leader in political communications.