Populism Development in Media Digitalization: The Role of Social Ideologies

Dear Colleagues,

There is a structural affinity between the media and populist communication. Populism is a multifaceted phenomenon that affects society, as it mobilizes emotions, produces symbols, affects subjectivity and gender relations simultaneously, and can manifest itself in different ways and appear in hybrid forms, as in the cases of Silvio Berlusconi, Hugo Chávez, and Donald Trump (Diehl & Bargetz, 2024).

The digitalization of the media has profoundly transformed social dynamics, facilitating the proliferation of populist discourses that appeal to multiple social ideologies (Arias-Maldonado, 2017). Populism, understood as a discursive strategy that constructs a dichotomy between a “pure people” and a “corrupt elite” (Mudde, 2004), has found an ideal space for expansion in the digitalization of the media.

The current model of online communication, particularly direct communication, and the anatomy of digital social networks has become a fertile field for the dissemination of populist rhetoric, articulating the concept with modern mechanisms of disinformation and falsification of reality (Prior, 2021). Digital platforms such as TikTok, Twitter (X), YouTube, or Facebook have emerged as key spaces where narratives that promote varieties of social values and visions of society are articulated and disseminated, shaping new forms of collective thought (Strömbäck and Luengo, 2008; Gil de Zúñiga et al., 2020). The strategic use of images, viral videos, and simplified messages has enabled the massification of stories that, in many cases, seek to legitimize traditional social structures and reinforce ideological identities (Waisbord, 2018).

These platforms not only allow for the rapid mobilization of audiences but also contribute to the configuration of contemporary social ideologies and the evolution of public opinion in digital contexts in response to contemporary sociocultural transformations. The interaction between social networks, algorithms, and communication strategies has transformed the way in which these ideologies are disseminated, generating highly cohesive communities (Engesser et al., 2017). The increasing personalization of content through algorithms has contributed to the formation of information bubbles, in which exposure to alternative discourses is reduced, thus reinforcing pre-existing narratives and promoting social polarization (Tucker et al., 2018). The strong emotional charge of fake news and the feelings they arouse in Internet users, which feed populism, leads to a strengthening of its ideas (Vosoughi, Roy, & Aral, 2018).

Thus, the dissemination of propaganda through digital media has become a central tool for the consolidation of populist and framed discourses. In an environment where the public sphere is increasingly fragmented, social media has facilitated the reinterpretation of cultural symbols and the redefinition of concepts such as family, national identity, and the role of the State (Gerbaudo, 2018). Digitalization has not only enhanced the dissemination of discourses but has also modified the way in which citizens perceive social changes and structure their ideological positions. The impact of these stories extends beyond the digital environment, affecting public debate and the way in which traditional media present and analyze sociopolitical phenomena (Bennett & Pfetsch, 2018). The way in which these stories are inserted into media agendas contributes to the reproduction or contestation of populist discourses, influencing the collective perception of reality and the decisions of citizens.

Against this background, this call for papers invites researchers to submit original studies that explore how digital platforms have influenced the construction of social ideologies, the configuration of public opinion, and the evolution of contemporary sociocultural phenomena. Contributions are welcomed from sociology, anthropology, communication, and cultural studies that analyze how the digitalization of media affects the perception and evolution of social ideologies and populist discourses in different social contexts.

Authors are encouraged to employ diverse methodological approaches and consider interdisciplinary perspectives that enrich the understanding of this phenomenon. Contributions should be original and offer in-depth analyses of the relationship between digitalization, populism, and the evolution of contemporary social thought. This Special Issue accepts interdisciplinary articles that address this complex topic from sociological, political, technological, communicative, and cultural perspectives.

We invite scholars to submit original research that addresses, among other, the following themes:

• The expansion of discourses in different cultural contexts.
• Information bubbles and their impact on the perception of social changes.
• The impact of digitalization on the public perception of traditional values and sociocultural changes.
• The impact of digitalization on the polarization and radicalization of online communities.
• The impact of social networks on the dissemination of social ideologies and populist narratives.
• The role of public opinion in the acceptance and legitimization of political discourses.
• The role of algorithms in the creation of information bubbles and their effect on social polarization.
• The role of influencers and public figures in the dissemination of social ideologies.
• The dissemination of digital propaganda and its impact on the perception of social changes.
• The influence of opinion leaders and influential figures in the promotion of traditional values in digital environments.
• The relationship between traditional and digital media in the propagation of varieties of discourses.
• The redefinition of cultural symbols on digital platforms.
• The response of educational and cultural institutions to the proliferation of different discourses in digital environments.
• The transformation of social values in the digital ecosystem.
• Social movements that have emerged or have been strengthened through digital media.
• Digital social movements in defense of social values.
• Perceptions and attitudes of youth towards populist and different narratives in the digital environment.
• Social networks and the construction of new ideological identities.

In this Special Issue, contributions must fall under one of three categories of papers—articles, conceptual papers, or reviews—and address the topic of this Special Issue.

References:

Arias-Maldonado, M. (2017). Rethinking Populism in the Digital Age: Social Networks, Political Affects and Post-Truth Democracies. The Contemporary Public Sphere -Protest Movements and Populist Actors. Santiago de Compostela: XIII Congreso AECPA.

Bennett, W.L., & Pfetsch, B. (2018). Rethinking Political Communication in a Time of Disrupted Public Spheres. Journal of Communication, 68, 2, 243–253. https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqx017

Diehl, P., & Bargetz, B. (2024). The Complexity of Populism. New Approaches and Methods

Engesser, S., Fawzi, N., & Larsson, A. O. (2017). Populist online communication: introduction to the special issue. Information, Communication & Society, 20(9), 1279–1292. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2017.1328525

Gil de Zúñiga, H., Koc Michalska, K., & Römmele, A. (2020). Populism in the era of Twitter: How social media contextualized new insights into an old phenomenon. New Media & Society, 22(4), 585-594. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444819893978

Mudde, C. (2004). The populist zeitgeist. Government and opposition, 39(4), 541- 563.

Prior, H. (2021). Digital populism and disinformation in «post-truth» times. Communication & Society. 34 (4), 49 – 64

Strömbäck, J., & Luengo, Ó. G. (2008). Polarized Pluralist and Democratic Corporatist Models: A Comparison of Election News Coverage in Spain and Sweden. International Communication Gazette, 70(6), 547-562. https://doi.org/10.1177/1748048508096398

Tucker, J. A., Guess, A., Barbera, P., Vaccari, C., Siegel, A., Sanovich, S., Stukal, D., & Nyhan, B. (2018). Social Media, Political Polarization, and Political Disinformation: A Review of the Scientific Literature (March 19, 2018). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3144139 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3144139

Vosoughi, S., Roy, D., & Aral, S. (2018). The spread of true and false news online. Science, 359(6380), 1146-1151.

Waisbord, S. (2018). Truth is What Happens to News: On journalism, fake news, and post-truth. Journalism Studies, 19(13), 1866–1878. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2018.1492881

Dr. Patricia Sánchez-Holgado
Guest Editor

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• digital democracy
• digital populism
• social ideologies
• propaganda in digital media
• public opinion and social networks
• ideological polarization
• sociocultural narratives on digital platforms