'The nightmare of multiculturalism': Interpreting and deploying anti-immigration rhetoric in social media. (March 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Nortio, Emma; Niska, Miira; Renvik, Tuuli Anna; Jasinskaja-Lahti, Inga
• Is Part Of: New media & society. Volume 23:Number 3(2021)
• Page Start: 438
• Page End: 456
• Publication Date: 2021-03
• Subjects: Discursive social psychology -- frame analysis -- hate speech -- migration -- multiculturalism -- online political deliberation; Mass media -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Mass media and culture -- Periodicals; Information technology -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Internet -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; 302.2305
• DOI: 10.1177/1461444819899624
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1461-4448

Abstract

Social media is an important transmitter of anti-immigration political rhetoric. In this study, we examine the discussions posted in a Finnish online forum provoked by an MP's anti-multiculturalist Facebook post. We draw upon frame analysis and discursive social psychology to analyse the communicative processes that challenge and normalise anti-immigration political rhetoric. Using frame analysis, we study how forum users entered heated societal discussion on multiculturalism by framing the MP's anti-multiculturalist address as either hate speech or – more dominantly – as normal political conduct. Using discursive social psychology, we examine constructions of multiculturalism in these discussions. We demonstrate how anti-immigration political communication was normalised, multiculturalism was constructed as a threat and the proponents of multiculturalism were discredited. We argue that to understand the rise of anti-immigration political movements, it is important to examine everyday political deliberation online as part of a wider discursive landscape.