Right-Wing, Populist, Controlled by Foreign Powers? Topic Diversification and Partisanship in the Content Structures of German-Language Alternative Media. Issue 8 (26th March 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Müller, Philipp; Freudenthaler, Rainer
• Is Part Of: Digital journalism. Volume 10:Issue 8(2022)
• Page Start: 1363
• Page End: 1386
• Publication Date: 2022-03-26
• Subjects: Alternative media -- right-wing populism -- partisanship -- topic modeling -- content analysis -- elections; Online journalism -- Periodicals; 070.40285
• DOI: 10.1080/21670811.2022.2058972
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2167-0811

Abstract

Abstract: This study investigates the overall topic compositions and traces of right-wing populist partisanship in the content structures of German-language digital alternative news outlets. We argue that a topically heterogeneous landscape of right-wing populist alternative news outlets could maximize the reach of right-wing populist messages. Using LDA topic modeling, we explore the topical structures of nine different outlets ( n = 66, 965 articles) and empirically identify meaningful groups of outlets. Our analyses suggest the existence of two topically heterogeneous clusters of alternative news media: (1) core right-wing populist outlets, with around 45–50% of articles coming from topics that are related to right-wing or populist politics; and (2) topically diverse outlets. The latter group's topic selection also reveals right-wing populist partisanship, but less prominently so, while putting more emphasis on general interest news topics, such as sports, economy, or international relations. This group also includes Russian state-owned RT deutsch and Falun Gong-affiliated Epoch Times whose institutional roots, however, are only partially reflected in their topic selection. Additionally, longitudinal analyses reveal an increase of populism-related topics in both groups around the election date of the 2017 German federal election.