Öffentliche Kommunikation und Rechtsextremismus
Public communication and right-wing extremism

Author(s): Marek Czyżewski
Subject(s): Social Sciences, Communication studies, Studies in violence and power, Sociology of Culture, Sociology of Politics
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: public discourse; accountability; symbolic elites; debates on right-wing extremism in Germany; discourse analysis; sociology of knowledge; hate crimes; violence; intermediary work
Summary/Abstract: This study has two focal points. One relates to the processes in public communication mediated by the mass media and is primarily concerned with debates in public discourse - regardless of their thematic focus - and with the role of symbolic elites. The other focus specifically concerns public constructions of right-wing extremism and public confrontations of the symbolic elites with right-wing extremism. For the most part, the period examined consists of the particular escalation of right-wing extremist violence in Germany between August 1992 and January 1993 in terms of the development of the discourse on this escalation. Thus, public debates and discussions about right-wing extremism are analysed against the background of general characteristics and tendencies in public communication. Priority is given to the analytical and critical examination of general problems of public communication. For many reasons, the debates on right-wing extremism carried out in the public discourse of the symbolic elites represent a particularly revealing field of observation with regard to the general characteristics, tendencies and deficits of public communication.

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