Politicians and Racism on Twitter: Citizen Reactions and New Forms of Social Participation

Abstract

This paper is a study case that analyses the various functioning logics of racism and anti-racism in Twitter, specifically following the publication of a polemic tweet against immigration by Pablo Casado, president of PP, which aligns itself on the conservative “right” of Spanish politics. The aim is to provide knowledge –still scarce in research on the subject– on the characteristics of racist discourse –and its confrontation– in digital spaces. It is a case study analysing how the selected political discourse, as elite discourse, elicits reactions and provokes social participation in digital spaces. Methodologically, it is based on Twitter content analysis, utilizing both quantitative (frequency of topics) and qualitative (articulation of arguments) approaches. We worked through the NVivo analysis software and selected a sample of tweets, that were then coded and analysed in depth, responding to the politician’s overall message. The results point to the existence of a strong rejection to the politician's words. However, there was an absence of a visibly explicit and significant anti-racism in the ensuing retorts. The support received for his racist comment was in the minority, although some were very aggressive.