Pandemic Populism? How Covid-19 Triggered Populist Facebook User Comments in Germany and Austria
Autor(a) principal: | |
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Data de Publicação: | 2022 |
Tipo de documento: | Artigo |
Idioma: | eng |
Título da fonte: | Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) |
Texto Completo: | https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.v10i1.4712 |
Resumo: | Covid-19 and the government measures taken to combat the pandemic have fueled populist protests in Germany and Austria. Social media played a key role in the emergence of these protests. This study argues that the topic of Covid-19 has triggered populist user comments on Facebook pages of German and Austrian mass media. Drawing on media psychology, this article theorizes populist comments as an expression of “reactance,” sparked by repeated “fear appeals” in posts about Covid-19. Several hypotheses are derived from this claim and tested on a dataset of N = 25,121 Facebook posts, posted between January 2020 and May 2021 on nine pages of German and Austrian mass media, and 1.4 million corresponding user comments. To measure content-based variables automatically, this study develops, validates, and applies dictionaries. The study finds that the topic of Covid-19 did trigger populist user comments and that this effect grew over time. Surprisingly, neither the stringency of government measures nor mentions of elitist actors were found to have the expected amplifying effect. The study discusses the findings against the background of governing the ongoing crisis and worrisome developments in the online public sphere. |
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Pandemic Populism? How Covid-19 Triggered Populist Facebook User Comments in Germany and AustriaCovid-19; fear appeals; populism; social media; user commentsCovid-19 and the government measures taken to combat the pandemic have fueled populist protests in Germany and Austria. Social media played a key role in the emergence of these protests. This study argues that the topic of Covid-19 has triggered populist user comments on Facebook pages of German and Austrian mass media. Drawing on media psychology, this article theorizes populist comments as an expression of “reactance,” sparked by repeated “fear appeals” in posts about Covid-19. Several hypotheses are derived from this claim and tested on a dataset of N = 25,121 Facebook posts, posted between January 2020 and May 2021 on nine pages of German and Austrian mass media, and 1.4 million corresponding user comments. To measure content-based variables automatically, this study develops, validates, and applies dictionaries. The study finds that the topic of Covid-19 did trigger populist user comments and that this effect grew over time. Surprisingly, neither the stringency of government measures nor mentions of elitist actors were found to have the expected amplifying effect. The study discusses the findings against the background of governing the ongoing crisis and worrisome developments in the online public sphere.Cogitatio2022-02-17info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttps://doi.org/10.17645/pag.v10i1.4712oai:ojs.cogitatiopress.com:article/4712Politics and Governance; Vol 10, No 1 (2022): Analyzing Citizen Engagement with European Politics Through Social Media; 185-1962183-2463reponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)instname:Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãoinstacron:RCAAPenghttps://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4712https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.v10i1.4712https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4712/4712https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/downloadSuppFile/4712/2279Copyright (c) 2022 Daniel Thielehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessThiele, Daniel2022-12-22T15:16:10Zoai:ojs.cogitatiopress.com:article/4712Portal AgregadorONGhttps://www.rcaap.pt/oai/openaireopendoar:71602024-03-19T16:22:15.491343Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãofalse |
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv |
Pandemic Populism? How Covid-19 Triggered Populist Facebook User Comments in Germany and Austria |
title |
Pandemic Populism? How Covid-19 Triggered Populist Facebook User Comments in Germany and Austria |
spellingShingle |
Pandemic Populism? How Covid-19 Triggered Populist Facebook User Comments in Germany and Austria Thiele, Daniel Covid-19; fear appeals; populism; social media; user comments |
title_short |
Pandemic Populism? How Covid-19 Triggered Populist Facebook User Comments in Germany and Austria |
title_full |
Pandemic Populism? How Covid-19 Triggered Populist Facebook User Comments in Germany and Austria |
title_fullStr |
Pandemic Populism? How Covid-19 Triggered Populist Facebook User Comments in Germany and Austria |
title_full_unstemmed |
Pandemic Populism? How Covid-19 Triggered Populist Facebook User Comments in Germany and Austria |
title_sort |
Pandemic Populism? How Covid-19 Triggered Populist Facebook User Comments in Germany and Austria |
author |
Thiele, Daniel |
author_facet |
Thiele, Daniel |
author_role |
author |
dc.contributor.author.fl_str_mv |
Thiele, Daniel |
dc.subject.por.fl_str_mv |
Covid-19; fear appeals; populism; social media; user comments |
topic |
Covid-19; fear appeals; populism; social media; user comments |
description |
Covid-19 and the government measures taken to combat the pandemic have fueled populist protests in Germany and Austria. Social media played a key role in the emergence of these protests. This study argues that the topic of Covid-19 has triggered populist user comments on Facebook pages of German and Austrian mass media. Drawing on media psychology, this article theorizes populist comments as an expression of “reactance,” sparked by repeated “fear appeals” in posts about Covid-19. Several hypotheses are derived from this claim and tested on a dataset of N = 25,121 Facebook posts, posted between January 2020 and May 2021 on nine pages of German and Austrian mass media, and 1.4 million corresponding user comments. To measure content-based variables automatically, this study develops, validates, and applies dictionaries. The study finds that the topic of Covid-19 did trigger populist user comments and that this effect grew over time. Surprisingly, neither the stringency of government measures nor mentions of elitist actors were found to have the expected amplifying effect. The study discusses the findings against the background of governing the ongoing crisis and worrisome developments in the online public sphere. |
publishDate |
2022 |
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv |
2022-02-17 |
dc.type.status.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion |
dc.type.driver.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/article |
format |
article |
status_str |
publishedVersion |
dc.identifier.uri.fl_str_mv |
https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.v10i1.4712 oai:ojs.cogitatiopress.com:article/4712 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.v10i1.4712 |
identifier_str_mv |
oai:ojs.cogitatiopress.com:article/4712 |
dc.language.iso.fl_str_mv |
eng |
language |
eng |
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv |
https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4712 https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.v10i1.4712 https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4712/4712 https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/downloadSuppFile/4712/2279 |
dc.rights.driver.fl_str_mv |
Copyright (c) 2022 Daniel Thiele http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
rights_invalid_str_mv |
Copyright (c) 2022 Daniel Thiele http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
eu_rights_str_mv |
openAccess |
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv |
application/pdf |
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv |
Cogitatio |
publisher.none.fl_str_mv |
Cogitatio |
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv |
Politics and Governance; Vol 10, No 1 (2022): Analyzing Citizen Engagement with European Politics Through Social Media; 185-196 2183-2463 reponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) instname:Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação instacron:RCAAP |
instname_str |
Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação |
instacron_str |
RCAAP |
institution |
RCAAP |
reponame_str |
Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) |
collection |
Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) |
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Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação |
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