politics

QArmy vs. QAnon Debunkers: The role of confirmation bias

Paper

Federica Morgandi

23/03/2020

12 minutes to read

QAnon is an American conspiracy theory associated with Trump supporters and right-wing politics. How can one article - which seeks to explain what QAnon is - influence debunkers and believers of the theory?

Conservative critiques of identity politics as divisive

Column

Rosalyn Negrón

21/01/2020

11 minutes to read

Rosalyn Negron unpacks the logics that underlie conservative critiques of left identity politics and zooms in on the specific significance of this discursive frame among conservatives.

OK boomer meme online culture generations

The discursive construction of the OK boomer meme

Article

Elle Lüchau

30/03/2020

12 minutes to read

In this article, I analyse the discursive construction of the OK boomer meme, examining its political and ideological significance and its different modes of use in a digital media system.

Get Brexit Done: Why storytelling is so important for electoral success

Column

Philip Seargeant

20/12/2019

5 minutes to read

How the Conservatives’ winning communications strategy in the UK general election mixed new media techniques with traditional forms of persuasion.

Leonardo DiCaprio and online activism

Article

Iris Dumoulin

26/02/2020

13 minutes to read

Leonardo DiCaprio has been stealing hearts since the '90s. But next to his acting, he has also been an environmental activist. To this day, his online posts encourage others to change the world. Can such a famous actor honestly be an activist?

Elizabeth Warren's battle against paid political speech

Article

Jelske van Es

28/01/2020

14 minutes to read

Since unregulated paid political advertising is still not banned from all social media platforms, Elizabeth Warren has become a central figure in the battle against this spread of misinformation to curtail its influence on the 2020 elections.

Racism and the politics of the beach

Column

Ana Deumert

28/11/2019

7 minutes to read

It's time to talk about racism and beach apartheid. Ana Deumert discusses ‘the beach’ as part of the settler-colonial imaginary in South Africa.

(De) constructing Jair Bolsonaro’s presidential campaign

Article

Ulisses Sawczuk da Silva

20/02/2020

14 minutes to read

Bolsonaro has harnessed new and legacy media in building an image of authenticity. This sucessful media strategy has helped catapult him to the presidency, despite his tendency towards offensive statements and hyper nationalism.