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Visual de-demonisation: A new era of radical right mainstreaming

Populism
Qualitative
Social Media
Communication
Donatella Bonansinga
University of Southampton
Donatella Bonansinga
University of Southampton

Abstract

The paper discusses and operationalises the novel concept of ‘visual de-demonisation’, which has been recently proposed to capture the interplay between populist strategic communication, radical right mainstreaming and positive content on visual social media such as Instagram and TikTok. The paper operationalises visual de-demonisation as a three-fold strategy that emphasises the legitimacy, good character and ample policy platform of radical right leaders on visual social media. It uses Marine Le Pen’s Instagram account (2015-2021) as a case in point, to illustrate the dynamics of visual de-demonisation and unpack how the three angles of the strategy (legitimacy, good character and policy) are performed visually. The study contributes to debates on the mainstreaming of the radical right, by empirically unpacking its visual performance and particularly evidencing the role of legitimacy-signalling as a prominent concern of populist leaders interested in de-demonising.