Supervisors info:
Κωνσταντίνος Μουρλάς, Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Επικοινωνίας και ΜΜΕ, ΕΚΠΑ.
Summary:
After the victory of Trump in the American Elections and the Brexit, it is imperative to analyze the phenomenon of contemporary populism. The mass media, and in particular the social media, have facilitated the rise, maintenance and spread of the populist phenomenon worldwide.
The people-centrism conception of populism, its anti-elitist character, and the exclusion or acceptance of minorities are the most important features of populism. The aim of the present thesis is to analyze the phenomenon of populism at nowadays and explain the way that populists political leaders in Europe and the USA use social media such as Twitter and Facebook to communicate directly and develop immediacy with their supporters.
Methodologically, the thesis was based on literature review, quantitative analysis, the technique of data mining and sentiment analysis through the Python programming language. The sample of the survey is composed of 2500 posts of political leaders on social media.
The main conclusions are that populist politicians use the social media to express their position, attack their political opponents and establish a direct relationship with their followers. Spreading populist messages by populist politicians about the people, immigration, the social policy, the existing political system, human rights, democracy, justice and the elite are their main topics in their personal accounts on social media and depends on their ideological orientation (left-right). In addition, right-wing populism is minority-exclusive, while the left is inclusionary as it embraces and supports the refugees. Furthermore, the pursuit of direct relationship with their audience is achieved through their strong presence in social media, the use of simple and vulgar language, their interaction with the public and the exposure of their personal lives. To that end, politicians who are not regarded as populists seem to use populist vocabulary into their posts on social media.
Keywords:
populism, social media, Europe, USA, Media
