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Populism and Engagement on Social Media: A quantitative study of Populist Discourse in Sweden

Wendsjö, Albert LU (2022) STVK02 20212
Department of Political Science
Abstract
There is a growing literature analysing social media, populism and the relation between them. In this thesis I argue that populist discourse generate more engagement than non-populist discourse on social media, and that this effect is stronger for opposition and extreme parties. I provide empirical evidence for this by analyzing a dataset consisting of N=52837 Twitter posts from M=190 Swedish members of parliament during the time period 2019-2021. These results contribute to the literature by generalizing and deepening previous results on populism on social media. I also construct a dictionary that allows for measurement of populist discourse in Swedish and show that populism is most common at the extremes of the political spectrum in... (More)
There is a growing literature analysing social media, populism and the relation between them. In this thesis I argue that populist discourse generate more engagement than non-populist discourse on social media, and that this effect is stronger for opposition and extreme parties. I provide empirical evidence for this by analyzing a dataset consisting of N=52837 Twitter posts from M=190 Swedish members of parliament during the time period 2019-2021. These results contribute to the literature by generalizing and deepening previous results on populism on social media. I also construct a dictionary that allows for measurement of populist discourse in Swedish and show that populism is most common at the extremes of the political spectrum in Sweden. Looking ahead I suggest that future research should further investigate why populist discourse is more engaging on social media and what implications this can have for society. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Wendsjö, Albert LU
supervisor
organization
course
STVK02 20212
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
populism, social media, engagement, dictionary
language
English
id
9069814
date added to LUP
2022-03-14 12:31:39
date last changed
2022-03-14 12:31:39
@misc{9069814,
  abstract     = {{There is a growing literature analysing social media, populism and the relation between them. In this thesis I argue that populist discourse generate more engagement than non-populist discourse on social media, and that this effect is stronger for opposition and extreme parties. I provide empirical evidence for this by analyzing a dataset consisting of N=52837 Twitter posts from M=190 Swedish members of parliament during the time period 2019-2021. These results contribute to the literature by generalizing and deepening previous results on populism on social media. I also construct a dictionary that allows for measurement of populist discourse in Swedish and show that populism is most common at the extremes of the political spectrum in Sweden. Looking ahead I suggest that future research should further investigate why populist discourse is more engaging on social media and what implications this can have for society.}},
  author       = {{Wendsjö, Albert}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Populism and Engagement on Social Media: A quantitative study of Populist Discourse in Sweden}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}