TY - JOUR

T1 - Far-right boundary construction towards the “other”

T2 - Visual communication of Danish People’s Party on social media

AU - Awad, Sarah

AU - Doerr, Nicole

AU - Nissen, Anita

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - This paper explores how images are used in online far-right political communication to create distinct groups of “otherness.” Focusing on the Danish People's Party, we look at how symbolic boundaries are constructed through images to emphasize an exclusive conception of the nation and its citizens, who need protection from the threatening “others.” In order to understand the global rise of the far right, scholars of social movements and digital media have called for new research on how visual images serve the mainstreaming of extremist and nationalist beliefs online. We look at images communicated by the Danish People's Party on their Facebook page, exploring how digital images visually communicate the party's slogan of “Safety and trust” (in Danish: “Tryghed og tillid”). With a focus on boundary construction, we present a multimodal visual analysis of 1120 images posted by the party from 2012 to 2020. The data shows how the party constructs an imaginary of Danishness through an exclusionary impermeable boundary construction of a trusted in-group's values and traditions in opposition to culturally distinct “others.”

AB - This paper explores how images are used in online far-right political communication to create distinct groups of “otherness.” Focusing on the Danish People's Party, we look at how symbolic boundaries are constructed through images to emphasize an exclusive conception of the nation and its citizens, who need protection from the threatening “others.” In order to understand the global rise of the far right, scholars of social movements and digital media have called for new research on how visual images serve the mainstreaming of extremist and nationalist beliefs online. We look at images communicated by the Danish People's Party on their Facebook page, exploring how digital images visually communicate the party's slogan of “Safety and trust” (in Danish: “Tryghed og tillid”). With a focus on boundary construction, we present a multimodal visual analysis of 1120 images posted by the party from 2012 to 2020. The data shows how the party constructs an imaginary of Danishness through an exclusionary impermeable boundary construction of a trusted in-group's values and traditions in opposition to culturally distinct “others.”

U2 - 10.1111/1468-4446.12975

DO - 10.1111/1468-4446.12975

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 36111591

VL - 73

SP - 985

EP - 1005

JO - British Journal of Sociology

JF - British Journal of Sociology

SN - 0007-1315

IS - 5

ER -