The visual rhetoric of right-wing populism:
An analysis of Vox’s visual communication on Instagram
Andrea Cubells Pastor
Media and Communication Studies - Culture, Collaborative Media and Creative Industries One-year master thesis | 15 credits
Advisor: Tina Askanius
Examiner: Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt Submission Date: 2020-08-30
ABSTRACT
In this digital world politics are now more than ever intertwined with different forms of social media that differ from traditional ones. Despite our lives being surrounded by images there are not enough relevant visual studies as there is a focus on the rhetoric of texts. From a political angle it is interesting to understand how these platforms have become an important instrument for the communication of right-wing populist and nationalist parties, such as Vox in Spain, who has been on the rise and is now the Spanish political party with most followers on Instagram.
This empirical study examines Vox’s visual communication on Instagram as I carry out a qualitative in-depth analysis of three posts from the gathered data chosen between 28th April 2019 and 12th March 2020. I employ inductive research paradigm, interpretive paradigm and rely on discourse historical analysis (inspired by Ruth Wodak) as well as critical perspectives on visual rhetoric and theories of representation in order to examine how Vox plays with ambiguity, stereotypes and biased discourse in their visual rhetoric and content. The analysis shows that Vox’s fits Wodak’s criteria and thematics of right-wing nationalist discourse. I also suggest an additional category where to include the portrayal of Catalan independentists, which resembles that of ‘dangerous foreigners’, an interesting case of biased representation that I believe is only found in Spain thus far.
TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT
LIST OF FIGURES
1. INTRODUCTION 1
2. BACKGROUND: UNDERSTANDING THE SPANISH CONTEXT 3
2.1. Catalan Independence 3
2.2. Financial crisis of 2008 4
2.3. The role of media for Vox 6
3. LITERATURE REVIEW OF PREVIOUS RESEARCH 7
3.1. Far-right politics and social media 7
3.2. Studies employing visual analysis of right-wing groups 9 3.3. Social media strategies and populist politics 11
4. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 14
4.1. Ruth Wodak and Politics of Fear 14
4.2. Barthes’ rhetoric of the image 16
4.3. Visual rhetoric: psychology and arguments 17
4.4. Hall on representation 19
5. METHODOLOGY 20
5.1. Discourse Historical analysis 20
5.2. Combining DHA and tools from Visual Analysis 21
5.3. Choice of material 22
5.4. Timeframe 24
5.5. Ethical Considerations 25
5.6. Limitations 26
6. ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 27
6.1. Discussion 33
6.1.1. Cultural Identity 33
6.1.2. Territorial politics 34
6.1.3. Emoji as visual language 34
6.1.4. Meme as a format through which populist rhetoric travels 35
6.2. Summary of findings 37
6.3. Further Research 38
7. CONCLUSION 39
REFERENCES 40
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: screenshot from vox_es account dating 9th May 2019 Figure 2: screenshot from vox_es account dating 2nd January 2020 Figure 3: screenshot from vox_es account dating 3rd November 2019 Figure 4: screenshot from vox_es account dating 28th April 2019
1. INTRODUCTION
In the Spanish elections of April 2019, a right-wing populist party named Vox made its way into the Congress. A few months ago, I came across a news article that mentioned their rapid rise on Instagram, becoming the party with most followers in the country by far; as a young party (founded in December 2013) with a firm focus on nationalism this phenomena caught my attention, leading me into their account to explore what kind of visual communication they were employing so distinctively with their audience. This thesis takes an interest exploring how Vox visually construct ideas and ideologies of nationalist politics in social media and how such visual rhetoric can be understood as expressions of contemporary right-wing populism in Spain.
Theoretically, this thesis is inspired by Ruth Wodak’s body of work on the rise of right- wing political parties and their communication strategies. Despite living constantly surrounded by images in this digital era, it is noticeable after researching that there is a dearth of visual analysis concerning politics and right-wing parties specifically, as academics often approach these from a textual angle. Through a political lens, this takes great importance, as parties are not only relying on mainstream media anymore to communicate with the audience. Therefore, social media such as Instagram can provide a solid platform for politicians, especially those that present rather controversial positions and might face more restrictions or editorial control of mainstream media.
Nowadays, far-right populist political parties are on the rise worldwide, and their visual communication seems fairly similar across different countries (Doerr, 2017,p.4). Therefore, the study of these parties and their rhetoric should not be overlooked and is vital to break down their content critically and to look further into what they are expressing, especially given the fact that they have a growing audience online, which indicates that their visual communication strategies are successful. In Spain alone, Instagram is the social media that has gained most users over the recent years, from which 66% are younger than 39 years old and is considered to be the social network of millennials (Galeano, 2019), yet most studies on Vox and similar far-right parties in Europe focus on Facebook or Twitter (Turnbull-Dugarte, 2019, p.5).
Based on the identification of this gap in knowledge the analysis is guided by two research questions:
-How does Vox employ visual rhetoric in their political communication on Instagram? -How can we understand Vox’s visual rhetoric on Instagram as an expression of right-wing populism in Spain?
This study is structured around seven different sections. After this short introduction follows the context where I lay out a couple of key events related to sociological and economical aspects that have impacted Spain in recent years that provide the background and setting for understanding the rise of Vox. The literature review was the first step of my research where I got my foundation to approach a topic and area that was unknown to me previously; above all I discuss the work of Ruth Wodak (2015) whose book Politics of Fear provided me with insights on rhetoric of the right-wing populists and ideas for the analysis framework and introduced me to discourse historical approach; I also engage with Nicole Doerr’s (2017) visual analysis who added relevant reflections to the discursive translation of nationalist symbols as well as other scholars that have researched social media, nationalist rhetoric and right-wing discourses.
Next, in theoretical framework I present different theories and concepts, most notably by Roland Barthes and Stuart Hall, whose work surrounds rhetoric, images and representation and will function as my tools for data analysis, as well as Wodak’s discourse historical approach and its use on this study.
In methodology I discuss the selection criteria and timeframe to gather the material for the visual analysis, which refer to Wodak’s thematics in her book and my own adaptation, and justify the use of visual analysis choice. I also position the study within the interpretive paradigm and further discuss the research questions that the study aims to answer. This section also includes discussion of ethical considerations related to the selection of the images, as well as how the information and results are handled or
displayed especially when dealing with sensitive topics, as well as the limitations of this project. In the sections findings and conclusion I analyse in detail some of the content found on the account and break down the different visual rhetorical elements in their communication and how they should be understood as expressions of far-right populism and in relation to recent pivotal political developments in Spain. I also discuss my contribution to this field and present some ideas and questions about the future research that could compliment this paper.
2. BACKGROUND: UNDERSTANDING THE SPANISH CONTEXT Over the past decade right-wing nationalism has been on the rise in different European countries, especially across liberal democracies. Spain, with a relatively novel democracy which only started in the mid 70’s, and the end of the dictatorship still feeling recent, could make us think that Spain would be an exception to this extreme nationalist mentality. Vox was created in 2013 with Santiago Abascal as one of the founders and current president of the party, and made its presence more noticeable in southern Spain in the region of Andalusia towards the end of 2018, with 11% of the votes (Turnbull-Dugarte, 2019, p.1). Vox wants to bring back a conservative mindset, and national sovereignty, Christian values and national identity are priorities in their agenda.
Above all social, economic and historical events that have marked Spain over the years there are two that are the most relevant to understand the rise of Vox: the upsurge of the Catalan independence and the global financial crisis of 2008.
2.1. Catalan Independence
The region of Catalonia is considered one of the wealthiest regions in the country, making approximately 19% of the GDP in Spain (BBC News, 2019); it has its own language, and was considered rather autonomous both before and after the dictatorship. After the financial crash in 2008 there was a lot of resentment and stronger separatist feelings arised. Most notably Vox asks for hard measures in regard to the independence movement in the Catalan region which reached its peak during the Referendum carried
out on the 1st October 2017, led by the coalition of separatists parties. Despite the Constitutional Court declaring this act illegal, the separatists still declared themselves independent on the 27 th of the same month. This ended with violent confrontations and making headlines that shocked the nation, and with the Spanish Government imposing the Article 155 of the Constitution (1978) leading to the cessation and dissolution of the Catalan Parliament (Turnbull-Dugarte, 2019, p.2) , leading to the Catalan president Carles Puigdemont to fly abroad and many other politicians were charged with treason (BBC News, 2019). This crisis left memories of violence with the national police and has since then, damaged the economy as business and firms left the region for fear of instability. Since these events there is a real sense of division in the country between those that support the independence or are against it. Vox demands the imprisonment of those involved in its organisation, and thus, they speak against the system established in 1978 allowing for the fifteen regions of the country to have its own regional government (Vampa, 2020, p.6), which particularly granted more autonomy to Catalonia and the Basque Country. Overall, they demand a new centralising of political power, which caught the attention of many supporters with the rising tension with the Catalans.
2.2. Financial crisis of 2008
Spain took a really slow recovery from the global financial crisis from 2008, which was up until recently still dragging and struggling especially to regulate unemployment, although other major issues such as bankruptcy, debt and the cutting back of social services, with many middle and lower class families suffering to make ends meet for years. As a result, this crisis had a negative impact on the way immigration was viewed too, even if immigration had previously helped by sustaining vital economic sectors and increased the birth rate and thus population growth of the country and taken the minor jobs less well paid. With the economic recession and the labour market strongly shook, this brought a negative light on immigrants and the government started to implement measures to restrict new immigrants from entering the country (Domínguez-Mujica, Guerra-Talavera, & Parreño-Castellano, 2012, p.114). Vox has a particular hostility towards Muslim immigration in their agenda, “especially at a time when the refugee and migrant problem in the Mediterranean is starting to affect Spain more than any other
littoral European country”(Barber, 2019). They want to strengthen the borders in north Africa where many find their way into Spain.
Other aspects that have also played in favour of Vox are, for instance, the scandals of political corruption by politicians in the country. This corruption was initially disclosed when the financial crisis struck, with the manipulation of public tenders, and the inflated costs for necessary works. This eventually meant the disappearance of jobs and social services for the ordinary Spaniards (Edwards, 2019). These scandals caused a major change on how politicians were looked at by the citizens, and the loss of trust became noticeable towards the Government both locally and nationally. A survey conducted in 2015 by CIS (Centre for Sociological Research) stated that 79.4% of respondents considered unemployment the state’s most serious problem, followed closely by 55.5% identifying corruption as a concern and a 24.5% referring to economical issues. These numbers remain fairly similar today (Myśliwiec & Stachowicz, 2018, p.230). The media began talking about corruption scandals and the connection to political parties almost exclusively, with Spanish families that were progressively deteriorated finding it impossible to ignore this information. As a result, the economic crisis altogether with the loss of confidence on the institution of the state led to a weakening of positive social sentiment to the authorities that were formed after 1975 when democracy was installed after the rule of General Franco.
Furthermore, there has been a growing fragmentation of political parties which has complicated the formation of stable governments and challenged the old system of bipartidism (Turnbull-Dugarte, 2019, p.4), often demanding coalition and a longer process of dialogues for the formation of a government. This happened on the 28th of April 2019 when no agreement was reached between the parties, demanding for new elections once again on the 10th of November, in which Vox managed to get more votes and doubled their seats in congress as a result of the noticeable political dissatisfaction.
Roger Eatwell and Matthew Goodwin (2018) claim that there are four major factors and characteristics of the voters that enable the rise or right-wing populist parties (p.14): firstly, these voters have a distrust in the political elites and feel anger and frustration
towards corruption; secondly, they face economic inequality or feel job insecurity; thirdly, they have the perception that there is a destruction and disregard towards the national cultures and traditions; lastly, the constant dealignment of citizens as voters. If we apply these points to the Spanish context to understand the rise of Vox, we can see how they fit well the description; It has been demonstrated that Vox voters in this case did not find themselves in a place of political dealignment, but rather the contrary, they abandoned previous political parties they supported and realigned with Vox, which explains their higher number of votes after the 10th of November and the decline of other right-to-center parties (Cuéllar Rivero, 2019, p.18).
2.3. The role of media for Vox
Vox appears to have a rather difficult relation with traditional media, and has openly criticized it in several occasions as a result of TV channels often refusing to promote them (Cuéllar Rivero, 2018, p.33). This explains their effort to gain visibility and strength through social media and online sites, as they do not find as many obstacles to publish their content.
For instance, their website seems to be successful too as it is the most visited in comparison to the other parties, especially during election campaigns and they offer the possibility of memberships and money donations. In Facebook they have the third place for most followed party, with an estimation of 65% of male followers aged over 45 (Gomez Ciriano, 2019, p.28). WhatsApp has also been used extensively and massively by the party as a diffuser of news, and works well as a personal and direct system of communication to all the phones on their data base. This is also a fast way of re-sending messages to other numbers. YouTube has also allowed them to show short clips directly which would not be broadcast on live TV although their account is currently suspended (Ciriano, 2019, p.30).
Other than their own management and occasional small media, often private and that align with their ideology, has shown support and offered a platform for Vox. In this case, the audience is so reduced that it does not offer a significant benefit to the party. Nonetheless Vox has invested resources to have digital advertising in social media sites,
and with a rather low budget (mostly consisting of donations) its majority has been invested on this.
Summarizing, Vox has been able to reach a broad spectrum of audiences (Cuéllar Rivero, 2019, p.54) thanks to a strategy which is segmented to cover several spaces online (this is further developed in the following section), as an alternative to television, newspapers and radio.
3. LITERATURE REVIEW OF PREVIOUS RESEARCH
Before commencing my own analysis I researched studies and papers in order to understand how much has been written already in this field, not only about far-right and right-wing movements and activities, but also about previous analysis on their use of visuals and propaganda; just as important it is to also read on how this is shifting in a current globalised world and especially how their rhetoric has been facilitated by social media and the internet. All this existing knowledge provides a vital foundation for the analysis of Vox and how to approach best my own contribution to this field, even if they are focused on different European cities, the models and ideology remain rather similar.
3.1. Far-right politics and social media
Mattias Wahlström & Anton Törnberg (2019), pay particular attention to the relationship between far-right politics and social media in their article Social Media
Mechanisms for Right-Wing Political Violence in the 21st Century: Discursive Opportunities, Group Dynamics, and Coordination. Focusing specifically on Sweden,
they discuss how the new types of media have become a space for far-right counter-narratives and platform for their organisations. They developed types of mechanisms and dynamics (2019, p.6) that could help identify the conditions that need to take place for political violence to happen by analysing data from diverse groups online that shared radical right opinions, such as Flashback.org, Facebook and Twitter; for this they used abductive reasoning and empirical observation. Their research looks at previous work by Ruud Koopmans who contributed to the study of discursive opportunity structures. Wahlström and Törnberg highlight an important difference
between traditional mass media and social media, involving the followers, providing a
forum for them to reach and share information, so the action is consistently happening online and offline. It was compelling to read this article as it highlights again the role of social media for these groups, even if in my case of studying Vox it is less related to violence in the streets, there are still elements that can be useful.
The study Extreme-right Responses to the European Economic Crisis in Denmark and Sweden: The Discursive Construction of Scapegoats and Lodestars (Askanius and Mylonas, 2015 ) complements well the two previous readings, with the main question of the paper being: How are threats of crisis, causes and solutions articulated by the extreme right? They discuss the escalation of these types of groups after the collapse of the global financial markets in 2008 and how the far-right is promoting itself on social media in Sweden and Denmark and their take on Greece during the crisis. In order to do this, it is essential to understand how they are constructing and shaping their identity image and how it is impacting the public; as Mylonas and Askanius write: “for the extreme right, the scope of ‘our identity’ is defined by racial, geographical, cultural and political characteristics” (Askanius and Mylonas,2015,p.64). For their discursive analysis they employed 192 articles from online media published by different far-right groups and supported this with in-depth interviews with journalists and a group also in charge of monitoring these websites, and their theoretical framework reclines on Laclau and Mouffe. Media is providing solid online platforms for these groups and like Wahlström and Törnberg point out, this is where all these groups are organizing and working, hence we see a decline of their visibility in the streets.
Dealing with the case of Vox specifically, a recent empirical analysis by Stuart J. Turnbull-Dugarte (2019), brought significant findings around the rise of Vox in Spain which challenges Wahlström and Törnberg’s emphasis on anti-immigration sentiments as the primary driving force behind the rise of the far-right. In Explaining the end of Spanish exceptionalism and electoral support for Vox Turnbull-Dugarte (2019) to focused on the electoral support for Vox by assessing both the opposition for the independence of the autonomous communities and worries around immigration in Spain. For this research he relied on post-electoral data between 10th December to the
3rd January 2019, in which he finds that the impact of the far-right in Spain differs from the rest of the countries in Europe: concerns over immigration “do not exhibit any independent effect on the probability of voting for Vox, or any other party, at levels of traditional statistical significance” (Turnbull-Dugarte, 2019, p.4) and thus, the results of the analysis show that “voters are driven to vote for Vox when they believe in reducing the independence of the country’s autonomous regions. It is the political conflict endangered by the Catalan question that drives Vox’s pro-Spanish and nationalist message is what attracts its supporters” (Turnbull-Dugarte, 2019, p.7). This can add a layer of complexity which applies specifically to Vox’s strong rhetoric of unity within the country and how this sentiment of the followers increased notably after the Catalan independence movement gained attention as they offer the harshest measures; nonetheless, in Vox’s Instagram there are a large number of posts where there is a stance against immigrants and misleading was in which they are portrayed, so it could be interesting to analyse the similarities and differences of representations of groups in the account.
3.2. Studies employing visual analysis of right-wing groups
Nicole Doerr (2017) offers a compelling critical visual analysis in Bridging language
barriers, bonding against immigrants . In this study she looked at a new form of sophisticated and subtle racism that far-right groups have modernized in their discourse. Drawing on previous work by Wodak, Doerr employs discourse historical approach and combines it with multimodal analysis and comparison in an empirical matter; this allows her to look at communication in all its forms. Here, Doerr pays attention to the visual communication employed by far-right groups focusing on SVP (Swiss People’s Party) and their successful anti-immigrant posters. For Doerr, these posters are particularly interesting to study because of the specific choice of cartoon designs, which she positions as intersemiotics because of the mutual complement of both text and image (2017, p.8); added to this there is also the consideration of iconographic meaning and symbolism. As Doerr explains, the reason why the analysis of the SVP poster is so interesting is because in countries such as Italy and Germany, extreme-right groups used it as a template for their own communication, putting in perspective the power of images and transnational network of publics.
A great part of visual analysis is looking at the choice of semiotic arrangements in images. Bernhard Forchtner and Christoffer Kølvraa (2017)wrote Extreme right images
of radical authenticity: multimodal aesthetics of history, nature and gender roles in social media, in order to look how these groups are ‘modernizing’ themselves and their representation. In this article they mapped out the content of far-right German accounts on Facebook from 2015, which resulted in snowballing allowing for a bigger database which was later categorised into themes (2017, p.258). By doing this, Forchtner and Kølvraa (2017) tackled two important areas about the far-right: firstly, by modernizing themselves on the internet it means that there is an attention to arrangement and crafting of the images often adapting to contemporary ways of presentation such as memes or emoji which help to tone down their content or ideology with irony and humor. And secondly, this adaptation also means approaching a younger audience by using a similar ‘language’. This online shift works hand in hand with with the claim that the nation needs a ‘rebirth’, and how this change relies on the capacity of the younger generation, and thus, there is a specific choice of semiotic arrangements using cultural symbols from composition of colors, to focus and tone.
In The Impact of Visual Racism: Visual Arguments in Political Leaflets of Austrian and British Farright Parties , Wodak and Richardson (2009) offer another visual analysis
this time applying discourse historical approach to critical discourse analysis to compare and draw parallels between Austrian and British election posters and brochures; This choice allows them to explore discourses, genres and texts in socio-political contexts (2009, p.46), paying special attention to five discursive strategies to justify what is included or excluded (p.47). After comparing both countries there is a clear standpoint from the parties towards their choice of visual and verbal interplay, which cannot be overlooked, in which they claim the need for racial purification of the city. Finally, Richardson and Wodak (2009), maintain a strong position towards visual communication interpretation, claiming it can be powerful and valid (p.52), and how often, there is little room for interpretation.
3.3. Social media strategies and populist politics
In an interview Víctor Sánchez del Real, ex vice-secretary of Vox’s communication department and one of the founders and ideologue of the party, said “the leaders [of the party] are part of the communication’s team [...] they know and decide about the communication” (Cuéllar Rivero, 2019, p.50) and praises, concretely, Abascal’s boldness and how he surrounds himself with a small team of eight to ten people that provide him with historical and cultural references. Whatsmore, he explains their emphasis on adapting to each medium of communication and about micro-targeting audiences during the elections to address specific opinions or issues that maybe are not put on the table by other political parties; They know what to find and expect from each social media “Instagram is where the youth is...And Facebook because that is where the political debate takes place for the mature age” (Cuéllar Rivero, 2019). This is an effective way to divide the population in order to offer specific content to each (p.11), and is a method that seems to prove most effective for audiences and voters who are indecisive. For some of their social media they also provide content specifically concerning special provinces whilst some others are national only.
Micro-targeting is just one of the ways in which the Internet and social media have changed the approach towards election campaigns and strategies for political parties. Political communication has had to adapt and expand to what seems to be 24h of constant information and reaching out to the public; In the case of Vox they are predominantly active on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, although they are also active on WhatsApp, Telegram and YouTube. Rubén Cuéllar Rivero (2019) outlines three major ways in which social media has an impact (p.10): first of all there is no intermediary because all the information reaches directly from one account to another, and compared to mainstream media there are less resources that are needed to do so; secondly, there is a change in the traditional direction the information was accessed, as the citizens are also equipped now and able to reach out themselves and access information directly when they wish and even participate in the campaign; thirdly, with the world of marketing entering into the digital political scape, elements such as Big
parties to access massive data accumulation, and this way consult preferences related to social, economic and cultural matters that condition the behaviour of citizens.
Since the voting for Brexit and the success of Donald Trump the concept of nationalism has gained importance, and now it seems unstoppable, with populist parties appearing in times of crisis as they have throughout history. Around this time, globalization started to gain a negative connotation, as it was challenging the ideas of culture, identity and nationalist ideas (Flew and Iosifidis, 2019, p.10). Voters of right-wing nationalism want to focus on what is best for the sovereignty of their own country. An interesting point by Flew and Iosifidis is that, in the majority of cases, they find that right-wing populist parties do not seek to leave the EU, but rather they demand for stronger restrictions on migration from other parts of the world, particularly from the Middle East and Africa; Wodak (2015) on the contrary states that EuroScepticism is present through their own interpretations of the past and the present in their seeking for hegemony (Wodak, 2015, p.63) and this can be undermining towards the European Union. In Vox there is a prominent dislike towards globalization but the party has not openly stated a wish to exit the EU.
With the internet and social media, new forms of individualism and interconnectedness transforms and impacts the media, culture and also politics. Top world brands are serving for communications media purposes which are helping to develop, shape and coordinate identities (Flew and Iosofidis, 2019,p.10). The political communication in social media could be regarded as positive, as it allows for a dialogue and representation of different points of view, whilst at the same time it facilitates the rapid acceleration and spread of nationalist rhetoric as it allows people to organize with others who think similarly. Gerbaudo (2018), for instance, believes that the hyperindividualism has led people in social media to a populist logic (2018, p.748) turning individuals into a body of people.
Kirill Zhirkov (2014) analysed in another study right-wing voters and their similarities across different Western countries in Europe and his results showed that most generally they would present similar ideological positions, concretely referring to
anti-immigration attitudes (specifically xenophobia and restrictive policies), as well as political mistrust and a critique towards conventional political systems (p.288). Something that Zhirkov brings up which is not as mentioned previously is the support for market economy; an anti-elite rhetoric and wanting the protection of the ‘common-people’ was also present in the results, although this is not something new. As Wodak (2015) argues: “right-wing populism can be defined as a political ideology that rejects existing political consensus and usually combines laissez-faire liberalism and anti-elitism. It is considered populism because of its appeals to the ‘common man/woman’ as opposed to the elites” (Wodak, 2015,p.30).
These readings have given me the knowledge on right-wing parties and different concepts to consider when carrying out my analysis, from their discourse to the strategies and representation of culture and identity. Something that really drives my attention towards the analysis of content used by right-wing populist parties, in this case Vox, is how everything has been assembled and put together visually in order to make a persuasive political argument. I am interested in looking between the lines and to discern and disentangle the multiple layers of populist discourse, and to bring to the foreground the practices and convictions of populist far-right parties so that we can think critically about what actually unified their memberships and sense of belonging.
The literature review shows that there is a lack of visual analysis of right-wing political parties. The visual perspectives should not be overlooked as such parties are broadening their reach through social media (Forchtner and Kølvraa, 2017). Turnbull-Dugarte stands with a similar opinion, and adds that in the case of Instagram the images are definitely more effective to capture the gaze of the spectators (2019, p.3). Over the past few years fake news and political disinformation have been hot topics, even to the point of impacting elections (Gerbaudo, 2018, p.746), but only rarely do studies focus on visual strategies specifically. For a party such as Vox, their content in social media is vital to gain popularity and create their own community. Nowadays, “digital images uploaded to social media have several characteristics that make their interpretation arguably more complex than the printed photograph” (Hand, 2017, p.220); therefore the visual communication language is more complex with new elements integrated, where
the visual and the written are assembled in meaning. This is also linked to
intertextuality, in this case with Vox to refer to past and present references explicitly, and how the meaning of an image might relate to the meanings of another one, as well as how the viewer can relate to it; “the inter-textual visuality on social media allows us to examine broader issues of method, from access, scope and scale to indexicality, authenticity and ethics” (Hand, 2017,p.217). Another reason that makes the study of content on Instagram particularly interesting is that it allows Vox to play with ambiguity as the communication is more vague than it could be in written text or speech, conveying both “intended and unintended ambivalence, such as would be necessary in order to raise claims to truth and authenticity while, at the same time, opening space of playfulness and irony” (Forchtner & Kølvraa, 2017, p.263).
Based on this literature review there is a need to expand on visual analysis on populist far-right parties and to look beyond textual analysis. This study contributes to knowledge in the field by focusing on the visual aspect of politics particularly in its use in social media by right-wing groups. Finally, this thesis also aims to encourage complex approaches towards images related to these groups and their discourses with a critical mind and a curiosity to read between the lines.
4. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
In order to be able to read and understand the data gathered for this study, I need the right concepts and tools. For this, I rely on the renowned work of theorists, scholars, sociologists, and philosophers that have studied and developed concepts such as semiotics, representation and rhetoric to help me approach my data during the visual analysis.
4.1. Ruth Wodak and Politics of Fear
The work of Ruth Wodak on right-wing layered messages and calculated ambivalence in the presentation of their ideology forms the theoretical pillar of the thesis. Politics of Fear by Wodak (2015) provided me with an extensive amount of research and deep analysis on far-right movements and their rhetoric. In her career, she has extensively researched right-wing groups and the particular ways in which these parties tend to
present themselves and their ideology in the current state she calls ‘media democracy’; for this particular book she made a linguistic, pragmatic and rhetorical analysis of 15 vignettes from election campaign posters in diverse countries, predominantly Austria, Germany, Hungary and Switzerland dealing with racism, anti-Semitism and predominant nationalist discourses. The most crucial point she makes is how messages of these parties (in either shape or form) are always layered ; this means they are full of contradictions purposefully and they are never a mistake, as they have been carefully crafted in order to construct fear. For instance, they represent the ‘others’ as both the victims and also the perpetrators of danger. Wodak looks at these disclaims and calculated ambivalence strategies relying especially on previous studies by Teun van Dijk (2015, p.82) who specializes in the field of text linguistics.
As she describes, right-wing populist parties often represent themselves as unusual and populist, authoritative and legitimate and they appeal to basic common sense by formulating simple answers to complicated challenges (Wodak,2015, p.25), normalizing their rhetoric, addressing those that have been ignored and left behind by other politicians. In order to understand better how these arguments are employed she relies on Aristotle, who used the word ‘endoxon’ to describe and opinion that is widely accepted because it is perceived as a traditional knowledge even if it is not true. Another phenomena which Wodak (2015) discusses is the major role that media supposes for these groups, as it offers diverse platforms where to gain popularity and spread their messages (p.43).
Overall, Wodak tries to make sense on why and how far-right populist parties manage to go up the electoral ladder, and the consequences that this entails by gathering diverse formats of data texts from different right-wing parties in Europe; she uses discourse historical approach (DHA) to contextualise the analysis. DHA is a socio-philosophical orientation of critical theory used to investigate phenomena in societies which are related to oral, written or visual language; it “allows relating the macro levels of contextualization to macro-level analysis of the texts” (Wodak, 2015,p.75) facilitating a process of content analysis and the assignment according to thematics. Wodak has further explained this type of analysis together with Martin Reisigl (2009), and it is a
type of orientation that fit well for my own analysis because of its focus on intertextuality in discourses and the consideration of sociopolitical and historical context embedded into it.
4.2. Barthes’ rhetoric of the image
My understanding of visual rhetoric draws on the work of Roland Barthes. In Rhetoric
of the Image Barthes (1977) addresses in depth the semiology and messages of images through an analysis and study of a Panzani advertisement, a brand of pasta products. The use of an advert is convenient in this case as we know that its arrangement is completely intentional, with a set of signifieds attached to the attributes of the product itself and there is an effort to transmit a clear message using fully formed signs (p.153). By doing this, Barthes also breaks the notion that images are weak and “an extremely rudimentary system in comparison with language” (Barthes,1977, p.152).
Barthes provides insights on the value of signifieds of the image, as well as the relation to linguistic messages that function as both denotational (basic descriptive level) and connotational (enters broad semantic fields in our culture) (p.153). This is arranged in a specific manner and is transmitted successfully because the readers are equipped with a cultural knowledge that has been widespread and implanted to become part of our habits. Other signs also push towards the association of this brand with Italy, with the use of tricolored intense hues (the red tomatoes, yellow pasta and green color in the logo) as well as the name Panzani itself functioning as connoted sign of a linguistic message and its Italian assonance.
According to Barthes, even when all signs are removed from an image there is still information left, an assembly of real objects that have been photographed and that constitute signifieds : “the relation between thing signified and image signifying in analogical representation is not ‘arbitrary’”(Barthes, 1977,p.154). With a photograph, the relation between a signified and a signifier remains true to every possible interpretation, even if there was an arrangement for the scene photographed it does not mean there was a transformation (p.154). In mass communication, images are always
accompanied by linguistic messages such as titles or captions, proving that speech is an important part of the informational structure (p.155) As images are polysemous (they can imply many signifieds) linguistic messages are employed in society as a technique to avoid uncertainty, functioning as Barthes describes, as an anchorage , guiding the interpretation of such image (1977, p.156). Thus, the morality and ideology of each society plays an important role in the inspection over an image.
In an image then, there is at least one meaning at the level of identification to what the scene represents. In advertising photographs “the denoted image naturalizes the symbolic message, it innocents the semantic artifice of connotation, which is extremely dense” (Barthes, 1977,p.159). The more technology is involved in the diffusion of information and images, Barthes explains, the more it provides a masking “of the constructed meaning under the appearance of the given meaning” (Barthes,1977,p.160).
When we read an image we are able to understand signs through our cultural code, and this means that the readings of the same lexical unit can vary depending on each individual; The image, then, “is constituted by an architecture of signs drawn from a variable depth of lexicons” (Barthes,1977, p.160).
4.3. Visual rhetoric: psychology and arguments
We live surrounded by images that play an important developing role on our consciousness and the relationship with the self. Nonetheless, images tend to be treated with distrust, and often placed secondary after verbal texts (Hill and Helmers, 2012, p.1); Visual rhetoric can be in texts themselves, for instance, in the use of specific typography.
The reading and understanding of symbols is often linked to a determined, embedded and conventional discourse, so that there is a common association (2012,p.4). One of the most effective ways in which images communicate is through intertextuality (p.5), when the audience recognises and relates one image with another, and is in charge of constructing a reference.
Charles S. Peirce developed different theories around signs and representation, and one of his most used studies is the triadic theory (1860) to distinguish diverse types of imagistic sign systems: the icon can be both abstract and representational, the index brings to the viewer a memory of a similar object and a symbol is a mental
representation, which he also refers to as metaphor (Hill and Helmers, 2012,p.16).
According to Charles Hill (2012), a main reason why images have been neglected by fields of rhetoric and argumentation, is because of their description as emotional (p.26). Only recently distinctions between the emotional and the rational have been “demonstrated as invalid” (Hill, 2012,p.27) and dismissed. Studies in persuasion have shown that readers often accept those arguers that reinforce their already-help opinions (2012,p.28) as there are elements of identification.
Research concludes that vivid information tends to be more persuasive and prompt emotional responses in the mind (p.32). Psychological theories present two types of cognitive processing (p.32): the first is “systematic processing” which relies in a slow and analytical manner towards an argument, whereas an “heuristic processing” relies on a short and fast approach and it is the most common one as it requires less cognitive work; while text requires an analytical nature, images are approached instantly. As humans, our evolutionary response is to make quick decisions, and the stimuli that “trigger these emotions can be personally and culturally conditioned.” (Hill, 2012,p.34); This is well known by persuaders in politics and marketing who create “associations between those images and abstract values that the persuader wishes to make more present to the audience” (2012,p.35).
Another big advantage in images is that they can be conveyed in a short amount of time and the audience is capable of processing that narrative. To be effective, the arguer must make a good use of visual symbolism and imagery to provoke involuntary reactions when the audience is not vigilant (Hill, 2012,p.52).
4.4. Hall on representation
Another important concept when approaching visual rhetoric is representation, to understand the construction of meaning from interpretations and the creation of mental concepts from visual images and how communication works in a shared culture. Described by Stuart Hall (2013) as an “essential part of the process by which meaning is produced and exchanged between members of a culture. It does involve the use of language, of signs and images which stand for or represent things [...] it is the production of the meaning of the concepts in our minds through language” (Hall, 2013, p.1). Hall proposed two systems of representation: first is the ‘system’ in which all people and events are connected with a set of mental representations existent in our heads that we use to interpret the world meaningfully and are not individual concepts; we are capable of communicating because we share the same ‘conceptual maps’ (2013,p.4). In order to exchange these concepts and meanings we must also share
language , which is the second ‘system’ of representation. Language correlates “our concepts and ideas with certain written words, spoken sounds or visual images” (Hall, 2013,p.4).
Visual signs are called iconic signs and they hold a resemblance to the object or person whilst written or spoken signs are called indexical (2013, p.7), and are more complex because they do not look or sound like the things which they referred to. We attach the
meaning constructed by the system of representation (p.7), and the correlation between a conceptual system and a language system is fixed by a code that stabilizes meaning, thus “one way of thinking about ‘culture’, then, is in terms of these shared conceptual maps, shared language systems and the codes which govern the relationships of translation between them” (Hall, 2013,p.7).
Colors are an interesting case as they do not have any real or fixed meaning themselves, but culture has assigned them meanings, as Barthes also proved; the language of colors also depends on how they relate to one another and arranged in our mental universe (2013,p.12). The code imposed on a color is what establishes meaning.
Language and representation studies have been greatly influenced by the linguist Ferdinand de Saussure. For him, the production of meaning depends on language, which is a system of signs (sounds, written words, photographs, etc). Saussure divides sign into two elements: form (signifier) and the idea/concept formed in the mind (signified), and it is “the relationship between them, fixed by our cultural and linguistic codes, which sustain representation” (Hall, 2013,p.16) although these are not permanent.
5. METHODOLOGY
5.1. Discourse Historical analysis
Discourse Historical Analysis (DHA) introduced by Wodak, is a prominent critical approach to the study of discourse which allows “relating the macro and meso-level of contextualization to the micro-level analysis of texts” (Wodak, 2015, p.75) first looking at thematics of the texts and then narrowing down to the detail, assigning them to specific discourses. It is especially associated with large programmes of interdisciplinary research after post-war that focus on sexism, anti-semitism and racism. It attempts to integrate all background and information available into the analysis and interpretation of the different layers found in a text, particularly focusing on context . This allows for better theoretical considerations around prejudice and racist discourse, as it designed to “enable the analysis of implicit prejudiced utterances, as well as to identify and expose the codes and allusions contained in prejudice disclosure. It has variously been applied to identity-construction in European politics” (van Dijk, 2011, p.401). Recently it is also employed to study patterns of identity politics in europe, news media, and the construction of social identity.
When applying DHA, there are three dimensions that need to be examined: content, discursive strategy and linguistic realization (Reisigl & Wodak, 2009, p.93), and for this matter when I carry out my visual analysis I will be looking at the overall composition of the posts, such as the image or video, emoji usage, captions written and hashtags, endorsing both the visual and the textual. Reisigl and Wodak propose five questions as strategies to employ when analysing discourse (p.93):
-How are people/events referred to linguistically?
-What are the characteristics and features attributed to social actors? -Are the utterances articulated intensified or mitigated?
-From what perspective are arguments expressed? -What specific arguments are employed in question?
These questions will be considered in conjunction with the different thematics I discuss in Choice of Material.
After researching and reading I have found a gap in knowledge I would like to address with my research questions:
-How does Vox employ visual rhetoric in their political communication on Instagram? -How can we understand Vox’s visual rhetoric on Instagram as an expression of right-wing populism in Spain?
For this, I will use visual analysis whilst also relying on discourse historical approach and the concepts discussed in previous section Theoretical Framework as tools to bring forward the elements, symbols and contexts which have to be considered.
5.2. Combining DHA and tools from Visual Analysis
Visual analysis allows me to unpack the different elements that form an image, photograph, or video, including the composition, historical context, point of view, possible patterns with other creations, colors, symbols and stereotypes and the blending of text. This focuses on Vox’s Instagram account, and this platform is exclusively visual with predominant use of images and videos. Thus, I must examine their visual communication and rhetoric together, including semiotic elements and the composition of text, emojis and images to understand how they communicate successfully.
For the visual analysis, I take as a starting point the argument of Gillian Rose (2001) that “social scientists are often interested in examining the ways in which social life is constructed through the ideas that people have about it, and the practices that flow from
those ideas” as “the visual is central to the cultural construction of social life in contemporary Western societies. It is now often suggested that much of the meaning is conveyed by visual images” (Rose, 2001, p.5-6). Rose proposes three modalities which can contribute to a critical approach towards images: the technological, the compositional and the social. These refer to the apparatus from which an image is looked at; secondly, the content, color and composition of an image; And lastly, the social, economic and political relation which surrounds an image (2001, p.17). These points match well as an addition to the critical approach I employ for this analysis and apply concretely to image analysis whilst also considering how these are accessed by the audience, in this case on Instagram.
Doerr (2017) also provided me with interesting tools to approach the modernised visual discourse of far-right parties on online platforms such as intersemiotics, as well as concepts linked to this specific methodology, such as iconography in the identification and in interpretation of content on images. She also looks at the translation of their nationalist symbols, and how these images are persuasive.
5.3. Choice of material
I have set the following points as a guide after a compilation of observations that Wodak makes throughout her book as a way of debunking right-wing populism and how they present and communicate themselves, also referring to thematics which are present in the background but are perceived less explicitly, thus, becoming an important part of their rhetoric. These points have been very important as guidance to select my data; within the chosen timeframe I looked for a range of posts (enough to perceive a pattern) which displayed or implied the following:
- negative representation of the ‘dangerous outsiders’ (especially Muslims/immigrants often represented in aggressive way)
- exaltation of nationality (national flag, reference to Catalan separatists, against autonomies, dangers of globalization, mention of the fatherland and tradition) - direct address to youth (use of memes, emojis, informal and friendly approach)
- traditional heteronormative roles/family (motherliness, mother’s day, women as caretakers)
- Against feminism or abortion rights (the ‘progressive left’)
- Appearance of leaders as well-educated and well-dressed, demonstrating strong charisma during conferences and speeches
- Religious values and Christian symbols
Aside from these I have also included a category in which they express self-awareness of success on social media or when they make a direct reference to their rise; this also includes their promotion of Telegram app to fight censures encountered in WhatsApp and its new measures to limit the spreading of messages.
Strategic selections of empirical material are sometimes perceived as a biased practice. Therefore it is necessary to provide transparency as to why some of the posts and material, (images and memes, photographs, and videos) were not included in my selection. Firstly, after a general and large overview of the content included in the timeframe I noticed that some posts were visually more rich an interesting than others to study and interpret, especially those that were created for or by the party from scratch generally including the logo of Vox or @vox_nacion tag. Most of the content that I did not find suitable included results of surveys or follow ups on electoral results, reminders and instructions on how to vote; references to sports national teams or appreciation posts towards the Royal Family were also not included, as well as content that recognises the hard work of farmers, or photographs of the members of Vox in Congress. Clips of interviews on TV against the opposition are also frequent, and although I am aware they post very specific parts of the debates convenient for their own representation against the ‘progressive interviewer’ it did not bring anything new to the previous selected. Other kind of content such as thanking the military and police for their service or old paintings of past victories were all extremely similar, thus I only included a sample of each which can be found in the list of figures. Lastly, some post take a focus on addressing students and the younger generation by encouraging to attend meet-up dates with the representatives, but I have decided to not dedicate an entire section to it; the reason behind this is because I believe that other posts that have been
