IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jscscx/v10y2021i8p294-d608316.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • 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
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/10/8/294/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/10/8/294/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    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.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    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).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dani Rodrik, 2018. "Populism and the economics of globalization," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 1(1), pages 12-33, June.
    2. Indra de Soysa & Synøve Almås, 2019. "Does Ethnolinguistic Diversity Preclude Good Governance? A Comparative Study with Alternative Data, 1990‐2015," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(4), pages 604-636, November.
    3. Vigvári, Gábor, 2022. "Transzformáció és a populizmus a visegrádi országokban [Transformation and populism in the V4 countries]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(3), pages 339-366.
    4. Tito Boeri & Prachi Mishra & Chris Papageorgiou & Antonio Spilimbergo, 2018. "A Dialogue between a Populist and an Economist," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 108, pages 191-195, May.
    5. Eriksson, Katherine & Alsan, Marcella & Niemesh, Gregory T., 2020. "Understanding the Success of the Know-Nothing Party," CEPR Discussion Papers 15562, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Hubert Tworzecki, 2019. "Poland: A Case of Top-Down Polarization," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 681(1), pages 97-119, January.
    7. Liesbet Hooghe & Tobias Lenz & Gary Marks, 2019. "Contested world order: The delegitimation of international governance," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 731-743, December.
    8. Jasiecki Krzysztof, 2018. "The strength and weaknesses of the varieties of capitalism approach: the case of Central and Eastern Europe," International Journal of Management and Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of World Economy, vol. 54(4), pages 328-342, December.
    9. Walter Bossert & Andrew E. Clark & Conchita d'Ambrosio & Anthony Lepinteur, 2019. "Economic Insecurity and the Rise of the Right," PSE Working Papers halshs-02325984, HAL.
    10. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/1divsbu8t888r9vqektjbmlqoa is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Dorine Boumans, 2017. "Does Populism Influence Economic Policy Making? Insights from Economic Experts Around the World," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 15(04), pages 40-44, December.
    12. Annie Tubadji & Thomas Colwill & Don Webber, 2021. "Voting with your feet or voting for Brexit: The tale of those stuck behind," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(2), pages 247-277, April.
    13. Simon Rudkin & Lucy Barros & Paweł Dłotko & Wanling Qiu, 2024. "An economic topology of the Brexit vote," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(3), pages 601-618, March.
    14. Gerard Seijts & Cristine de Clercy, 2020. "How Do Populist Voters Rate Their Political Leaders? Comparing Citizen Assessments in Three Jurisdictions," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(1), pages 133-145.
    15. Barone, Guglielmo & Kreuter, Helena, 2021. "Low-wage import competition and populist backlash: The case of Italy," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    16. Lars Osberg, 2019. "Could "Equality of Opportunity" among Commoners Suffice?," Working Papers daleconwp2019-01, Dalhousie University, Department of Economics.
    17. Baranov, Victoria & de Haas, Ralph & Grosjean, Pauline, 2018. "Men. Roots and Consequences of Masculinity Norms," Other publications TiSEM 6fa57f55-71bb-42c4-8cc4-d, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    18. Karakas, Leyla D. & Mitra, Devashish, 2020. "Inequality, redistribution and the rise of outsider candidates," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 1-16.
    19. Benjamin Monnery & Alexandre Chirat, 2024. "Trust in the Fight Against Political Corruption: A Survey Experiment among Citizens and Experts," Working Papers AFED 24-02, Association Francaise d'Economie du Droit (AFED).
    20. repec:ces:ifodic:v:15:y:2018:i:4:p:50000000000853 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Jésus Fernández-Villaverde & Carlos Sanz & Jesús Fernández-Villaverde, 2024. "Classical Right, New Right, and Voting Behavior: Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment," CESifo Working Paper Series 11179, CESifo.
    22. Lepinteur, Anthony & Yin, Rémi, 2022. "Does Economic Insecurity Reduce all Types of Expenditures?," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1060, Global Labor Organization (GLO).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:10:y:2021:i:8:p:294-:d:608316. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.