Anti-Immigrant Narratives in Times of Real Crisis. An Automated Content Analysis of Italian Political Communication on Social Media
Anti-Immigrant Narratives in Times of Real Crisis. An Automated Content Analysis of Italian Political Communication on Social Media

Author(s): Anita Gottlob, Luca Serafini
Subject(s): Media studies, Migration Studies
Published by: Transnational Press London
Keywords: Anti-Immigrant; Narratives; Real Crisis; Italian; Political; Communication; Social Media;
Summary/Abstract: In this paper, we explore how the narrative on immigration changes when society is threatened by ‘real’ risks, i.e., during the COVID-19 health crisis. We compared the salience and engagement of posts published on Facebook between December 2019 and November 2020 by politicians and by the Italian news media; post selection used a dictionary related to immigration. Along with prior research on anti-immigration narratives, we also operationalized risk narratives on immigration by constructing a second dictionary for post selection. Our findings suggest that the political discourse and risk narratives on immigration decreased during times of ‘tangible crisis’ for right-wing populist parties and news media.

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