Emotional Politics, Islamophobic Tweet. The Hashtags #Brexit and #chiudiamoiporti

Authors

  • Giulia Evolvi Erasmus University, Rotterdam

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1285/i20356609v12i3p871

Keywords:

Brexit, Islamophobia, migration, Matteo Salvini, Twitter

Abstract

Contemporary far-right politicians increasingly diffuse messages through social networks. This article argues that online communication may prove effective for political engagement because it can create emotional reactions against certain groups, in a process that I call "emotional antagonism." An example of emotional antagonism is online Islamophobia, which considers Islam as supposedly incompatible with democratic values and tends to conflate Muslims with migrants. Through qualitative observations and textual analyses of tweets, this article explores the following questions: How do certain online exchanges emotionally frame Muslims as the social "others" in relation to European culture? Why and how does the Internet facilitate the spread of emotional antagonism? What type of political propaganda and participation is connected to affective online Islamophobia? The article analyses two case studies: 1) Islamophobic tweets sent in the aftermath of the British referendum in 2016, with the hashtag #Brexit; 2) Anti-Muslim tweets that contain the hashtag #chiudiamoiporti (close the ports), launched by Italian Vice Prime Minister Matteo Salvini in 2018 to support anti-migration measures. The article shows that exploring emotional antagonism can add complexity to the current understanding of Islamophobic conflicts, of social media platforms' characteristics, and of political participation based on online communication.

Author Biography

Giulia Evolvi, Erasmus University, Rotterdam

Giulia Evolvi is Research Associate in Religion and Media at the Center for Religious Studies (CERES) at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, where she coordinates the focus group “Media and Materiality” for the Käte Hamburger Kolleg project. She also works as Lecturer in Media and Communication at Erasmus University, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.  She obtained her PhD in Media Studies from the University of Colorado Boulder, United States, where she was affiliated with the Center for Media, Religion and Culture, and also holds a Master's degree in Religious Studies from the University of Padua, Italy. Her research interests are religious change in Europe, secularization, digital media, Catholicism, Islam, and Islamophobia. She has published the book Blogging my Religion: Secular, Muslim, and Catholic Media Spaces in Europe (Routledge 20

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Published

15-11-2019

How to Cite

Evolvi, G. (2019). Emotional Politics, Islamophobic Tweet. The Hashtags #Brexit and #chiudiamoiporti. PARTECIPAZIONE E CONFLITTO, 12(3), 871–897. https://doi.org/10.1285/i20356609v12i3p871

Issue

Vol. 12, No. 3 (2019). Special Issue on: Working as a platform: Labour needs, activation and representativeness in the era of digital transformation

Section

Open Section

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