Political polarization in Spain has been aggravated by a left-wing coalition government and the rise of the extreme right in the context of health and economic crisis created by COVID-19. This article delves into the collective story that memes offer of this context and aims to establish a categorization that can be used for comparison with other countries. We carried out a content analysis of 636 Spanish political memes published on Twitter throughout 2020. Current affairs were taken into account, as well as the frame, and rhetorical elements, references to popular culture, and symbols. We also took into consideration the objectives of the message and the presence of offensive content. We demonstrate that these memes do not play a subversive role, but rather contribute to the polarization and fragmentation of the digital public, echoing the existing ideological confrontation. They do not deliver new ideas, but only reproduce expressions and disqualifications already existing in the society, although the disinhibition of anonymity magnifies the intensity. Current affairs are an excuse to convey ideological position, and political communication becomes more emotional. There are no significant differences in terms of political polarization between left and right, and criticism toward politicians is mainly of personal and moral nature. Hate speech on other social media appears in these cultural creations, highlighting the misogyny toward women politicians regardless of their political party. The rhetorical and expressive resources are adapted to this confrontation, and there is little innovation because it is subject to the understanding of the message.
The rise of user-generated content (UGC), such as internet memes and amateur videos, enables new possibilities for mediatization of the past. However, these possibilities can facilitate not only more diverse and less top-down engagements with memory, but also lead to its trivialization and distortion of historical facts. The latter concerns are particularly pronounced in the case of memories about mass atrocities (e.g. the Holocaust), where online media are often used to promote denialism and attack the victims’ dignity. To better understand the relationship between UGC and memory mediatization, we examine a selection of internet memes dealing with Anne Frank, an iconic Holocaust victim. Using a combination of inductive content analysis and close reading, we identify four classes of Anne Frank memes: (1) ad hominems; (2) deniers; (3) trivializers; and (4) thought provokers. Our findings demonstrate the multi-faceted functionality of memes, which are used not only to trivialize Holocaust memory, but also to reinforce canonical narratives about Anne Frank, and highlight the dependency of memes on other forms of memory mediatization, thus raising questions about the interrelations between UGC and institutionalized forms of remembrance.
Esta investigación analiza la relación entre los temas, valores noticiosos y presencia de sensacionalismo en noticias publicadas en Facebook y el nivel de interacción de los usuarios. Para ello se lleva a cabo un análisis de contenido (n=2.821) de mensajes publicados en Facebook por seis diarios españoles (El País, El Mundo, La Vanguardia, El Confidencial, El Diario y El Español). Se han identificado diferentes tendencias para distintas facetas de la interacción (compartir, "Me gusta”, comentar y reacciones emocionales). Los comentarios se relacionan con noticias sobre gobierno y partidos políticos y con artículos centrados en la proximidad, la actualidad, la relevancia social, la utilidad y la élite. Los "Me gusta" son más frecuentes en artículos deportivos, mientras que los artículos más compartidos muestran una presencia significativa de rasgos sensacionalistas. Se propone que investigaciones posteriores analicen otras categorías temáticas para proporcionar un análisis más amplio del fenómeno del engagement de las noticias.
Populist parties use social media as a fundamental element of their online communication strategies. This article aims to identify the strategies of right-wing populist parties and politicians on TikTok by measuring a set of features of their videos: It evaluates the presence of hate speech in these messages and the identification of certain groups as “enemies” of “the people,” and also pays special attention to the differences in engagement according to the presence of hate speech and entertaining or humoristic features. We apply a content analysis to a transnational sample (<em>N</em> = 293) of videos posted by the following populist right-wing parties and politicians on TikTok: Vox and Santiago Abascal (Spain), José Antonio Kast (Chile), and the UK Independence Party (UK). Findings show that while Vox and UKIP use TikTok to convey their ideology and values and to target the state as the main enemy of “the common person,” Kast used the same platform to build and project his image of leadership and to broadcast humoristic and entertaining content. Only 19% of the analyzed videos included hate speech elements. Not only was hate speech uncommon; it deterred engagement in terms of the number of comments as well. Contrarily, humour and entertainment favoured engagement. We conclude that TikTok might downplay the most controversial issues of the populist right.
El objetivo de esta investigación es analizar las estrategias de los principales diarios españoles en Facebook prestando atención a la temática, los valores noticiosos y el sensacionalismo utilizados. El estudio se basa en un análisis de contenido cuantitativo (n = 2.821) de los contenidos en Facebook publicados por tres diarios tradicionales (El País, El Mundo y La Vanguardia) y tres nativos digitales (El Confidencial, El Diario y El Español). Entre los resultados obtenidos, destaca que los contenidos sobre sucesos y tribunales son los más frecuentes y la proximidad, el valor noticioso más recurrente en ambos tipos de diarios. En cuanto a las prácticas sensacionalistas, los nativos digitales utilizan más el texto apelativo y el clickbait.
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