The extreme right and the online public sphere

The extreme right and the

online public sphere Lieke Ongering, MA

Inclusion Exclusion

The extreme right

• Features of the extreme right (Mudde, 1995)

• Nationalist

• Racist

• Xenophobic

• Anti-democratic

• Believe in strong state

MUDDE, C. 1995. Right-wing extremism analyzed. A comparatics analysis of the ideologies of three allegedright wing

extremist parties (NPD, NDP, CP‟86). European Journal of Political Research, 27, 203-24.

The extreme right

Active constitution of the „Other‟

Active exclusion of their constitutive „Other‟

Creation of „communities with closure‟ (Couldry, 2002), „anti-public spheres‟ (Cammaerts, 2007)

CAMMAERTS, B. 2007. Jamming the political: boyong counter-hegemonic practices. Continuum: jourmal of media and

cultural studies, 21(1), 71-90.

COULDRY, N. 2002. Alternative media and mediated community. Paper presented at The International Association for

Media and Communication Research. Barcelona.

The British National Party

• Research on the BNP online:

• Copsey (2003), Atton (2004)

ATTON, C. 2004. An alternative Internet, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press.

COPSEY, N. 2003. Extremism on the net. The extreme right and the value of the Internet. In: GIBSON, R., NIXON, P. & WARD, S.

(eds.) Political Parties and the Internet. Net gain? London: Routledge.

• Atton (2004):

“The „community‟ established by the BNP in

cyberspace is replete with closure:

organisationally, dialogically, discursively.”

• BNP can be seen as a British extreme right

party

Web 2.0

• Open, democratic and bottom up structure

• Web 2.0 encourages Interactivity, networking

and selfpublishing

O‟REILLY, T. 2005. What is Web 2.0: Design patterns and business models for the next generation of software. [Online].

Available: http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html [Accessed 26 October 2011].

• O‟Reilly:

• “Architechture of Participation”

BNP + Web 2.0 = more open?

BNP Facebook Page

Analysis of the deliberativeness of the discussions

Analysis of the discussions on the page, for example:

What do they talk about?

Who is talking with who?

How do they talk?

The normative conditions

of the public sphere

• Process of achieving mutual understanding

• Rational-critical debate

• Coherence and continuity

• Reciprocity, reflexivity and empathy

GRAHAM, T. 2009. What‟s Wife Swap got to do with it? Talking politics in the net-based public sphere. Amsterdam:

Amsterdam School of Communications Research, University of Amsterdam.

• Structural and dispositional fairness:

• Discursive equality

• Discursive freedom

• Sincerity

Coding scheme Adapted from:

GRAHAM, T. 2009. What‟s Wife Swap got to do with it? Talking politics in the net-based public sphere. Amsterdam:

Amsterdam School of Communications Research, University of Amsterdam.

STROMER-GALLEY, J. 2007. Measuring deliberation‟s content: A coding scheme. Journal of Public Deliberation, 3, 12.

Coding example

• The normative conditions of the public sphere

were unsatisfied

• No „mutual understanding‟

• No structural and dispositional fairness

BNP + Web 2.0 = more open? BNP + Web 2.0 = more open?

• Unreasoned comments

• Insulting comments towards constitutive other

• Attraction towards the BNP ideology

• Only 2 % clear aversion

BNP + Web 2.0 = more open?

“Solution. Get them all out.

PROBLEM SOLVED EASY.”

Confirms earlier research

Community with closure

Anti-public sphere

BNP + Web 2.0 = more open?

Some minor changes

• Compared to earlier research: • More openness

• Multi-voiced discourse within the BNP community

• Less hierarchical communication • User-generated content more important

• Changes in line with general development of the Internet

• These changes should not be exaggerated BNP community is still very closed

Inclusion Exclusion

Inclusion and exclusion online

Internet

a democratic Internet

• e-participation

• networked public Inclusion and exclusion

onlinesphere(s)

• inclusion

a polarised Internet

• Polarisation and

fragmentation

(Sunstein, 2009)

• Information cocoons

• exclusion

SUNSTEIN, C.R. 2009. Going to extremes. How like minds unite and devide, Oxford, Oxford University Press

Extreme right = extreme example

Exclusion can also take place in democratic e-participation projects

Detect exclusion and prevent from happening

Concluding remarks

Thanks!

• Research done at University of Leeds

• Supervised by Dr Giles Moss

• E-mail: [email protected]

• LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liekeongering

• Twitter: @nietweinig