Symbolic Politics of the Facecover: Online Engagement Towards Far-Right Visuals
Authors
Abstract
The idea of constructing a community around the distinctive characteristics of an in-group in opposition to an out-group has long been studied in psychology as one of the motivations for developing national identities, as well as one of the key factors that could lead to intergroup discrimination and conflict. Those dynamics are commonly seen in how European far-right political parties construct a national identity in opposition to a threatening ‘other,’ and increasingly utilize visual communication on social media to mobilize and attract followers through a strong focus on images of the ‘other’. In this study, we investigate the Danish People’s Party’s (DF – Dansk Folkeparti) visual construction of in- and out-group distinctions and how social media users engage with some of the most viral images of the party on the social media platform Facebook. We use visual content analysis of DF images in combination with discursive qualitative analysis of users’ affective engagements in the comments section. The study contributes a nuanced understanding of affective engagement with far-right visual practices. Findings show that the party’s visual communication relies heavily on othering images in the construction of an exclusionary national identity. Those othering images – especially the image of Muslim women wearing facecover – attract the highest online engagement. However, contrary to the assumption that those images create hate echo chambers, the high engagement does not necessarily come from those who subscribe to the same affect expressed by the party, but also attracts more opposing views contesting the image and its message.