Right-Wing and Right-Wing-Populist Organizations in the Networked Public Spheres in Germany and the United States of America

• Applicant: Dr. Jonas Kaiser
• Subject Area: Communication Sciences
• Term: from 2017 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 347490596

This research project will focus on the analysis of the online connection between the right political fringe and the political mainstream in Germany and the USA, the identification of relevant organizations and communities, and the analysis of transnational connections of right-wing-populist and right-wing-extremist organizations. Indeed, in the last few years right-wing movements have become more popular in Germany and the US. These organizations knew to use topics such as the financial crisis, the refugee crisis or islamistic terror attacks for their gain in order to promote themselves and their topics within the public sphere – especially online. Since 2012 the right-wing-populist party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), the right-wing civic movement Pegida, and the right-radical movement Identitäre Bewegung (IB) managed to establish themselves as actors within the German public sphere and to blur the lines between right fringes and mainstream. At the same time, the right-wing populist Donald Trump who is infamous for racist and islamophobic remarks has been elected as US president and reached the center of the political mainstream. All actors have in common that they use the Internet prominently and use their websites and Facebook pages to disseminate information, recruit new members and connect with other organizations. This happens both nationally as well as transnationally.The project which I am conducting at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, is a combination of the digital methods network analysis and automated content analysis, namely topic modelling. I am thus not only able to identify organizations and communities but also their stance and main topics. The unit of analysis are the Facebook pages and websites of the organizations. Preliminary project results show, for example, how Breitbart acted as a bridge between white nationalist blogs and the conservative center and was even to influence Fox News’ immigration coverage. For Germany, preliminary results give empirical weight to the relevance of AfD, Pegida and IB for the German right-wing but also highlight the IB’s connectedness to the NPD and to international right-wing actors. In this project, I am aiming to understand what counterpublics exist within the German and US right fringes, what organizations bridge the gap between center and fringe, and which organizations bridge the country borders. The project, then, contributes to the highly relevant issue of transnational online right-wing-populism and right-wing-radicalism and shines a light on the relationship between counterpublics and public sphere and gives insights into antagonistic publics. This project’s extension is aimed at consolidating the research that has been conducted up to now, and at extending the project with essential perspectives (e.g. user perspective on Facebook).

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: USA
• Host: Professor Dr. Urs Gasser