Populist political advertising in times of pandemic: Framing elites as anti-religious
Scientific literature has repeatedly shown that populism feeds on crises, exploiting divisions which grow within societies. Populist narratives that flourished during the COVID-19 pandemic argued that the health crisis is yet another pretext for the "corrupt, globalist elites" to strip &qu...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
[publisher not identified]
2021
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| In: |
Journal for the study of religions and ideologies
Year: 2021, Volume: 20, Issue: 60, Pages: 115-127 |
| Further subjects: | B
Euroscepticism
B Content Analysis B Social media B political advertising B Populism B Religion B Pandemic B ATLAS.ti B Framing |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | Scientific literature has repeatedly shown that populism feeds on crises, exploiting divisions which grow within societies. Populist narratives that flourished during the COVID-19 pandemic argued that the health crisis is yet another pretext for the "corrupt, globalist elites" to strip "the honest citizens" of their fundamental values, amongst which those of religious nature. In Romania, the nationalist conservative Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR) won 9 percent of the votes in the parliamentary elections held in December 2020. A newcomer in Romanian politics, AUR vowed to rest its political action on four main pillars, i.e. family, nationhood, faith and liberty - all of them strong religious symbols. Moreover, in its political programme, AUR claims to fight against the persecution that Christianity has allegedly been subjected to in recent decades. The current paper looks into how AUR used political advertising in social media to frame elites as anti-religious, thus illegitimate to represent Romanians or to influence national politics. It is usually that the party’s scapegoating strategy targets high-profile national or supranational political figures (most often European Union officials or institutions), blamed for their loose, if not severed, connections with ordinary citizens. The study also shows that during a crisis, populist political advertising makes extensive use of its religious dimension. |
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| ISSN: | 1583-0039 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal for the study of religions and ideologies
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