HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES FRAMING OF “US-VS-THEM” IN RIGHT-WING COMMUNICATION HOW TWEETS ARE USED AS FORMS OF COMMUNICATION BY A GERMAN RIGHT-WING PARTY MASTER’S THESIS BY ANNA-LENA KRUG Tiedekunta – Fakultet – Faculty Koulutusohjelma – Utbildingsprogram – Degree Programme Faculty of Social Sciences Global Politics and Communication Tekijä – Författare – Author Anna-Lena Krug Työn nimi – Arbetets titel – Title Framing of ”Us-vs.-Them” in Right-Wing Communication – How Tweets are used as Forms of Communication by a German Right- Wing Party Oppiaine/Opintosuunta – Läroämne/Studieinriktning – Subject/Study track Governance, Organisations and Communication Työn laji – Arbetets art – Level Aika – Datum – Month and year Sivumäärä – Sidoantal – Number of pages Master’s of Social Sciences May 2020 85 Tiivistelmä – Referat – Abstract The world in which we live and communicate is complicated and complex. This is also true for political communication, which has moved, in some part, to newer forms of media, such as social media platforms. Politicians have gained the opportunity to communicate directly with their followers online, without any mediators. This allows political actors to present the image of themselves and the version of reality they want to convey. Twitter is one example of such a platform, which provides an interactive channel of communication between political actors and their audience. This thesis aims to analyse how the 280 characters long tweets are used as forms of communication by employing and combining Erving Goffman’s concepts of framing and self-presentation. Frames are interpretative frameworks which are activated by our brains to make sense of situations and events and the understanding of self-presentation describes how actors portray themselves in social settings. (Political) actors can change the way the narrative is framed, depending on which frame of reference they are highlighting in their communication. For the case sample, 1785 tweets by the German party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) have been collected over a period of four weeks at the beginning of 2020. Their categorization as a right-wing party as well as their active presence on Twitter makes them an interesting subject of study. To structure the collected data, the tweets are divided into 12 categories of framing strategies, which are based on the differentiation between a Positive Self-Presentation and a Negative Other-Presentation. The analysis of the tweets and the employed framing strategies showed that the party emphasised the (perceived) differences between themselves and the other, which ranges from political elites, oppositional political parties and their supporters to civilian groups such as activists, migrants or critics of the party. Language is important for the portrayal of the framing strategies, either through the usage of personal pronouns – for example, “us” or “them” – or through the invention of mocking names classifying the other. The self, here the AfD, is always presented positively and the others are depicted in a negative light. It has been found that the combination of different framing strategies can lead to a stronger emphasis on the positive self and the negative other. The tweets generally portray one version of reality or one version of the narrative that fits best to the objective the party wants to portray. The data sample and the period of data collection are rather limited and would need to be expanded for further analysis. Nonetheless, the results give an indication of how framing strategies can be used daily in political communication, which can add to the knowledge of political researchers and communicators. Avainsanat – Nyckelord – Keywords AfD, frames, framing, Goffman, othering, political communication, right-wing, self-presentation, us-vs.-them Ohjaaja tai ohjaajat – Handledare – Supervisor or supervisors Pertti Ahonen Säilytyspaikka – Förvaringställe – Where deposited Muita tietoja – Övriga uppgifter – Additional information Table of Contents I. List of Abbreviations ..................................................................................................... i II. List of Figures .............................................................................................................. ii III. List of Tables ................................................................................................................iii 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Literature Review .................................................................................................................. 3 2. The Alternative für Deutschland ................................................................................. 5 2.1 Anti-Establishment Parties .................................................................................................. 6 2.2 The AfD Twitter Profiles in this Paper ................................................................................ 7 3. Twitter as a Form of Communication .........................................................................11 3.1 Its Function as a Political Medium.................................................................................... 11 3.2 The Twitter-Use of the AfD ................................................................................................ 12 4. Framing – A Framework for Analysis ........................................................................14 4.1 Goffman’s Understanding of Framing.............................................................................. 15 4.2 An Extension of the Concept ............................................................................................ 17 4.3 Implications of Political Framing ....................................................................................... 18 4.4 The Concept of Self-Presentation .................................................................................... 20 4.5 Othering and the Us-vs-Them Categorization ................................................................ 21 5. Methods .......................................................................................................................23 5.1 Formation of Categories .................................................................................................... 23 6. The Tweets in Context ................................................................................................26 7. Analysis of the Tweets ................................................................................................29 7.1 Negative Other-Presentation ............................................................................................ 30 7.1.1 The Others are Hostile to Democracy ..................................................................... 31 7.1.2 The Others are Violent ............................................................................................... 35 7.1.3 The Others are Lying and Untruthful ....................................................................... 38 7.1.4 The Others are Remote-Controlled .......................................................................... 40 7.1.5 The Others are Damaging to the Country ............................................................... 42 7.1.6 The Others are Clueless ............................................................................................ 44 7.1.7 The Others are Obsolete ........................................................................................... 47 7.1.8 The Others are Spineless .......................................................................................... 49 7.1.9 The Others are Useless ............................................................................................. 51 7.2 Positive Self-Presentation ................................................................................................. 53 7.2.1 We are the Saviours of the Country ......................................................................... 54 7.2.2 We are the Victims...................................................................................................... 57 7.2.3 We are the Popular Ones .......................................................................................... 59 7.3 The Usage of Personal Pronouns .................................................................................... 61 8. Discussion of the Results ...........................................................................................64 8.1 How can Tweets Frame the Narrative? ........................................................................... 65 8.2 Limitations and Possibilities of Further Research .......................................................... 66 9. Conclusion ...................................................................................................................67 10. References ...................................................................................................................69 11. Annex ...........................................................................................................................78 i I. List of Abbreviations AfD Alternative für Deutschland (translation: Alternative for Germany) BfV Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (translation: Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution BVG Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (translation: