The European political order has changed rapidly during the 21st century as Neo-liberalism has unified the political field and the new populist movements have seized much space on it. Also in Finland, the right-wing populist party Finns Party has established a firm position in the national politics during the past years. Meanwhile, social media as a communication platform enables a polarizing, and even hostile, communication style only possible in its context.
In my paper, I will analyze confrontation discourses in Finnish politicians' social media texts released during Finland's parliament election years 2015 and 2019. The writers of the texts are members of the Finnish Parliament, positioned on the opposite sides of the political field. The topics discussed in the texts contain, inter alia, the so-called refugee and solidarity crisis and the difficult economic situation in Finland and Europe at the time, as well as the alleged division of the Finnish people based on differing values and opinions. The focus of the paper lies on discursive realizations of political confrontations in the politicians' social media texts. I will examine different dimensions of political confrontations, and discursive strategies and devices they are produced with. Moreover, I will discuss effects of increased mainstreaming of populist communication style in Finnish politicians' social media discourse.
I approach confrontations as a discursive means of political positioning and populism as a political communication style and a discursive process of self-identification based on a division between 'the people' and 'the others'. The theoretical and methodological base of the study lies on Critical Discourse Studies and on its Discourse-Historical Approach. Moreover, populism serves as a theoretical and contextual starting point of the study.
Literature
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Wodak, R. (2015). The Politics of Fear. London: Sage.
