This study concerns political communication in general, and right-wing populist PR in particular. Research shows that the role of mass media in liberal democracies has changed as a result of emerging social- and alternative media. Political parties no longer need news media to spread their agenda, which proves an opportunity for right-wing populist parties to reach a broader audience. This study aims to determine how The Sweden Democrats, as Sweden’s largest right-wing populist party, communicate through the use of PR-activities. Building on existing work on the content of populist communication, this study aims to show not only what the party communicate but also how they communicate. The ambition is to enable a discussion on the possible effects of right-wing populist communication in liberal democracy. Based on Habermas’ theory of the public sphere, a critical discourse analysis was carried out on two of the Sweden Democrat’s PR-activities. Analysis on the examples demonstrates use of a populist discourse as well as the use of manipulative persuasive strategies. The results indicate that right-wing populist communication have a negative effect on democracy. The Sweden Democrats utilize discontent and fear as a foundation for totalitarian reasoning, through a use of strategy that neglects the value of democracy. Based on the results the public sphere is recommended as a normative vision for political debate. Further research is needed on how right-wing populist parties communicate in Sweden and internationally, as well as how the use of strategic communication can be transformed to better serve democratic politics.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-414045 |
| Date | January 2020 |
| Creators | Nellie, Östman, Liminga, Agnes |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Medier och kommunikation, Uppsala universitet, Medier och kommunikation |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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