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Narrating the (climate) crisis: Discursive strategies of the AfD on TikTok

Aue, Paulina Leoni LU (2024) HEKM51 20241
Department of Human Geography
Human Ecology
Abstract
The rising influence of the far right in Europe and the advance of the climate crisis constitute intersecting trends. The AfD in Germany is no exception in gaining discursive and political power in this context of uncertainty. Particularly in the realm of social media and TikTok, the AfD receives unproportionate popularity and visibility, which enable the spread of its ideology-laden discourse and climate change narratives. Hence, in this thesis, I conduct a Critical Discourse Analysis of two AfD politicians’ TikTok accounts (Alice Weidel and Maximilian Krah) to understand how and with what implications the AfD’s far-right ideologies are discursively conveyed on TikTok in context of the climate crisis. Additionally, I employ the lenses of... (More)
The rising influence of the far right in Europe and the advance of the climate crisis constitute intersecting trends. The AfD in Germany is no exception in gaining discursive and political power in this context of uncertainty. Particularly in the realm of social media and TikTok, the AfD receives unproportionate popularity and visibility, which enable the spread of its ideology-laden discourse and climate change narratives. Hence, in this thesis, I conduct a Critical Discourse Analysis of two AfD politicians’ TikTok accounts (Alice Weidel and Maximilian Krah) to understand how and with what implications the AfD’s far-right ideologies are discursively conveyed on TikTok in context of the climate crisis. Additionally, I employ the lenses of ontological security and fantasy to explore the appeal of these narratives. I find that various discourses of denial and delay underlie the AfD’s climate change narratives and that a delegitimization of the government is intricately linked with them. I then propose that this leads to the simplistic construction of a fantasy, in which the insecurity-evoking issue of climate crisis becomes a politically endogenous issue that can be easily resolved to restore ontological security through nothing more than a change in government. Finally, I use these understandings to explore possibilities to effectively counter the strength of such narratives. (Less)
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author
Aue, Paulina Leoni LU
supervisor
organization
course
HEKM51 20241
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Critical Discourse Analysis, far-right ecology, social media, ontological security, fantasy, climate change narratives, AfD, TikTok
language
English
id
9171766
date added to LUP
2024-09-16 08:42:20
date last changed
2024-09-16 08:42:20
@misc{9171766,
  abstract     = {{The rising influence of the far right in Europe and the advance of the climate crisis constitute intersecting trends. The AfD in Germany is no exception in gaining discursive and political power in this context of uncertainty. Particularly in the realm of social media and TikTok, the AfD receives unproportionate popularity and visibility, which enable the spread of its ideology-laden discourse and climate change narratives. Hence, in this thesis, I conduct a Critical Discourse Analysis of two AfD politicians’ TikTok accounts (Alice Weidel and Maximilian Krah) to understand how and with what implications the AfD’s far-right ideologies are discursively conveyed on TikTok in context of the climate crisis. Additionally, I employ the lenses of ontological security and fantasy to explore the appeal of these narratives. I find that various discourses of denial and delay underlie the AfD’s climate change narratives and that a delegitimization of the government is intricately linked with them. I then propose that this leads to the simplistic construction of a fantasy, in which the insecurity-evoking issue of climate crisis becomes a politically endogenous issue that can be easily resolved to restore ontological security through nothing more than a change in government. Finally, I use these understandings to explore possibilities to effectively counter the strength of such narratives.}},
  author       = {{Aue, Paulina Leoni}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Narrating the (climate) crisis: Discursive strategies of the AfD on TikTok}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}