IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/qualqt/v58y2024i2d10.1007_s11135-023-01729-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Emotion recognition in italian political language for prefiguring crisis in the balance of the parties’ coalitions

Author

Listed:
  • Alessia Forciniti

    (University IULM)

  • Emma Zavarrone

    (University IULM)

  • Mirella Paolillo

    (University of Naples Federico II)

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to describe the emotions that dominated the political vocabulary used on Twitter during the Covid-19 epidemic by the leaders of the major Italian political parties, including Forza Italia, Movimento 5 Stelle, Fratelli d’Italia, Italia Viva, Lega, and Partito Democratico. We developed a 4-step analysis model based on Natural Language Processing (NLP) that combines: (1) Exploratory Textual Data Analysis; (2) Emotion Recognition (ER) for Italian language; (3) cross-tabulation coding between leaders and emotions; (4) the multivariate approach of Correspondence Analysis in order to determine the associations between politicians and four categories of emotions: anger, fear, sadness, and joy. Specifically, we contrasted the language utilized by Covid-19 leaders throughout the first and second waves. The results reveal an intriguing shift in the emotions communicated through political discourse between the first and second waves. Giorgia Meloni’s position as head of Fratelli d’Italia shifted significantly from fury to fear and grief, aligning her more with centrists and foreshadowing a serious rift in the right-wing and the balance of coalitions in the political arena. Giorgia Meloni became Italy’s Prime Minister in September 2022. This political success shows that the sentiment analysis done in this paper could be a good way to predict the future.

Suggested Citation

  • Alessia Forciniti & Emma Zavarrone & Mirella Paolillo, 2024. "Emotion recognition in italian political language for prefiguring crisis in the balance of the parties’ coalitions," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 58(2), pages 1971-1992, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:qualqt:v:58:y:2024:i:2:d:10.1007_s11135-023-01729-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s11135-023-01729-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11135-023-01729-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11135-023-01729-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Benjamin Moffitt & Simon Tormey, 2014. "Rethinking Populism: Politics, Mediatisation and Political Style," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 62(2), pages 381-397, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Xinyu Zhang & Yue Liao, 2023. "A Bibliometric and Visual Analysis of Populism Research (2000–2020)," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, December.
    2. Lars Rensmann & Sarah L. de Lange & Stefan Couperus, 2017. "Editorial to the Issue on Populism and the Remaking of (Il)Liberal Democracy in Europe," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(4), pages 106-111.
    3. Schenkel, Marina, 2024. "Health emergencies, science contrarianism and populism: A scoping review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 346(C).
    4. Lasco, Gideon & Curato, Nicole, 2019. "Medical populism," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 221(C), pages 1-8.
    5. Ruben Durante & Paolo Pinotti & Andrea Tesei, 2019. "The Political Legacy of Entertainment TV," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(7), pages 2497-2530, July.
    6. Kai Jäger, 2020. "When Do Campaign Effects Persist for Years? Evidence from a Natural Experiment," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 64(4), pages 836-851, October.
    7. Sofya Glazunova, 2020. "‘Four Populisms’ of Alexey Navalny: An Analysis of Russian Non-Systemic Opposition Discourse on YouTube," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 121-132.
    8. Oliver Hidalgo, 2019. "The Theory of Democratic Antinomies and the Identification of Value Trade-Offs in Political Practice," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 264-274.
    9. Morelli, Massimo & Gennaro, Gloria & Lecce, Giampaolo, 2021. "Mobilization and the Strategy of Populism Theory and Evidence from the United States," CEPR Discussion Papers 15686, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Manuel Menke & Tim Wulf, 2021. "The Dark Side of Inspirational Pasts: An Investigation of Nostalgia in Right-Wing Populist Communication," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(2), pages 237-249.
    11. Sofya Glazunova, 2020. "‘Four Populisms’ of Alexey Navalny: An Analysis of Russian Non-Systemic Opposition Discourse on YouTube," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 121-132.
    12. Lars Rensmann, 2017. "The Noisy Counter-Revolution: Understanding the Cultural Conditions and Dynamics of Populist Politics in Europe in the Digital Age," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(4), pages 123-135.
    13. Frédéric Docquier & Lucas Guichard & Stefano Iandolo & Hillel Rapoport & Riccardo Turati & Gonzague Vannoorenberghe, 2022. "Populism and the Skill-Content of Globalization: Evidence from the Last 60 Years," CESifo Working Paper Series 10068, CESifo.
    14. Werner, Annika & Giebler, Heiko, 2019. "Do Populists Represent? Theoretical Considerations on How Populist Parties (Might) Enact their Representative Function," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 55(4), pages 379-392.
    15. Hélder Prior, 2024. "Social media and the rise of radical right populism in Portugal: the communicative strategies of André Ventura on X in the 2022 elections," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-10, December.
    16. Lars Rensmann & Sarah L. de Lange & Stefan Couperus, 2017. "Editorial to the Issue on Populism and the Remaking of (Il)Liberal Democracy in Europe," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(4), pages 106-111.
    17. Celico, Andrea & Rode, Martin & Rodriguez-Carreño, Ignacio, 2024. "Will the real populists please stand up? A machine learning index of party populism," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    18. Angelo Antoci & Guido Ferilli & Paolo Russu & Pier Luigi Sacco, 2020. "Rational populists: the social consequences of shared narratives," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 479-506, April.
    19. Abigail Friendly, 2022. "INSURGENT PLANNING IN PANDEMIC TIMES: The Case of Rio de Janeiro," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(1), pages 115-125, January.
    20. Kittel, Rebecca C., 2024. "Let's talk populist? A survey experiment on effects of (non‐) populist discourse on vote choice," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, issue Early Vie, pages 1-25.

    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:spr:qualqt:v:58:y:2024:i:2:d:10.1007_s11135-023-01729-1. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.