Post-Truth Politics, Digital Media, and the Politicization of the Global Compact for Migration

Maximilian Conrad

doi:10.17645/pag.v9i3.3985

Abstract

The debate over the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) in late 2018 showcases the crucial role of digital and, in particular, social media as vehicles of disinformation that populist actors can exploit in an effort to create resentment and fear in the public sphere. While mainstream political actors and legacy media initially did not address the issue, right-wing populist actors claimed ownership by framing (presumably <em>obligatory</em>) mass immigration as a matter of social, cultural, economic, and not least political risk, and created an image of political and cultural elites conspiring to keep the issue out of the public sphere. Initially advanced via digital and social media, such frames resonated sufficiently strongly in civil society to politicize the GCM in various national public spheres. In this article, these dynamics are explored by comparing the politicization of the GCM in three EU member states, namely Germany, Austria, and Sweden. Using a process-tracing design, the article (a) identifies the key actors in the process, (b) analyzes how the issue emerged in social and other digital media and travelled from digital media into mainstream mass media discourse, and finally (c) draws comparative conclusions from the three analyzed cases. Particular emphasis is placed on the frames used by right-wing populist actors, how these frames resonated in the wider public sphere and thereby generated communicative power against the GCM, ultimately forcing the issue onto the agenda of national public spheres and political institutions.

Highlights

The debate over the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) in late 2018 showcases the crucial role of social and other digital media as vehi‐ cles of disinformation that populist actors can exploit in order to politicize issues by creating resentment and fear in the public sphere
This process was highlighted through the use of a comparative case study that traced the devel‐ opment of the GCM’s politicization in three EU member states
The process followed its own dynamics in the three chosen countries, a similar causal mecha‐ nism was at play in all three cases

Summary

Introduction

The debate over the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) in late 2018 showcases the crucial role of social and other digital media as vehi‐ cles of disinformation that populist actors can exploit in order to politicize issues by creating resentment and fear in the public sphere. The empirical analysis highlights the causal pathways through which opposition against the GCM moved from the fringes of the political spectrum via social/digital media into the wider public sphere and into the institutions of the political system This process is analyzed through a comparative case study with a process‐tracing design (Beach & Brun Pedersen, 2013). These are illustrative cases, chosen primarily for the pur‐ pose of demonstrating how far‐right actors have used social and other digital media to cause outrage about the GCM, what impact this has had on broader public debate and what responses it elicited from institutional actors within the political system Following this short introduction, the section presents the article’s theoretical argument on post‐truth politics, digital media and right‐wing mobilization against the GCM. Debates on the GCM are well‐suited for this kind of analysis: they were relatively short‐lived and arguably had limited immediate politi‐ cal impact beyond the sudden politicization of the GCM, they were indicative of the kind of polarization and “dis‐ rupted public spheres” (Bennett & Pfetsch, 2018) that have increasingly come to characterize liberal democra‐ cies in the wake of the rise of digital and social media (Barberá, 2020; Persily & Tucker, 2020; Sunstein, 2017)

Methodological Aspects

Resonance in the Wider Public Sphere

Conclusions