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Populism, Twitter, and COVID-19: Narrative, Fantasies, and Desires

Author

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  • Laura Cervi

    (Department of Journalism and Communication Sciences, Autonomous University of Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain)

  • Fernando García

    (General Studies Program, University of Lima, Lima 15023, Peru)

  • Carles Marín-Lladó

    (Department of Communication Sciences and Sociology, Faculty of Communication Sciences, Rey Juan Carlos University, 28942 Madrid, Spain)

Abstract

During a global pandemic, the great impact of populist discourse on the construction of social reality is undeniable. This study analyzes the fantasmatic dimension of political discourse from Donald Trump’s and Jair Bolsonaro’s Twitter accounts between 1 March and 31 May. To do so, it applies a Clause-Based Semantic Text Analysis (CBSTA) methodology that categorizes speech in Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) triplets. The study findings show that in spite of the Coronavirus pandemic, the main beatific and horrific subjects remain the core populist signifiers: the people and the elite. While Bolsonaro’s narrative was predominantly beatific, centered on the government, Trump’s was mostly horrific, centered on the elite. Trump signified the pandemic as a subject and an enemy to be defeated, whereas Bolsonaro portrayed it as a circumstance. Finally, both leaders defined the people as working people, therefore their concerns about the pandemic were focused on the people’s ability to work.

Suggested Citation

  • Laura Cervi & Fernando García & Carles Marín-Lladó, 2021. "Populism, Twitter, and COVID-19: Narrative, Fantasies, and Desires," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-18, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:10:y:2021:i:8:p:294-:d:608316
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Laura Cervi & Santiago Tejedor, 2020. "Framing “The Gypsy Problem”: Populist Electoral Use of Romaphobia in Italy (2014–2019)," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-16, June.
    2. Inglehart, Ronald F. & Norris, Pippa, 2016. "Trump, Brexit, and the Rise of Populism: Economic Have-Nots and Cultural Backlash," Working Paper Series 16-026, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    3. Paris Aslanidis, 2018. "Measuring populist discourse with semantic text analysis: an application on grassroots populist mobilization," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 52(3), pages 1241-1263, May.
    4. Michael Higgins, 2017. "Mediated populism, culture and media form," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 3(1), pages 1-5, December.
    5. Carl Roberts, 2000. "A Conceptual Framework for Quantitative Text Analysis," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 34(3), pages 259-274, August.
    6. Laura Cervi & Santiago Tejedor & Mariana Alencar Dornelles, 2020. "When Populists Govern the Country: Strategies of Legitimization of Anti-Immigration Policies in Salvini’s Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-12, December.
    7. Tanase Tasente, 2020. "Twitter Discourse Analysis of US President Donald Trump," Technium Social Sciences Journal, Technium Science, vol. 2(1), pages 67-75, January.
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    Cited by:

    1. Liu, Liyi & Tu, Yan & Zhou, Xiaoyang, 2022. "How local outbreak of COVID-19 affect the risk of internet public opinion: A Chinese social media case study," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).

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