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Article published In: Multimodal Argumentation: Special issue of the Journal of Argumentation in Context 13:2 (2024)
Edited by Hartmut Stöckl and Assimakis Tseronis
[Journal of Argumentation in Context 13:2] 2024
► pp. 232–259

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Critical reconstructions of populist multimodal argumentation

Illustrations from right-wing parties’ Facebook posts on the Russo-Ukrainian refugee issue

 | University of Groningen
 | West University of Timișoara
 | Uppsala University
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with University of Groningen.

Published online: 10 September 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jaic.00029.ser
Abstract
This article extends to the study of populist argumentation a framework for the analysis of inferences implicitly emerging from multimodal artifacts. The framework builds on a post-structuralist approach to populism and integrates multimodal critical discourse studies and argumentation studies, specifically the Argumentum Model of Topics. Particular emphasis is laid on the contribution of visual discourse to the process of inference-making in interrelation with verbal discourse. We illustrate the framework by examining the social media posts of three populist right-wing parties/party members from Sweden, Greece and Romania. Finally, we discuss future avenues for the analysis of populist communication practices online from the perspective we propose.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.European populist right-wing politics
    • 2.1Populism: An overview
    • 2.2The populist right-wing parties under study
  • 3.Cross-fertilizing multimodal discourse and argumentation studies: A critical perspective
    • 3.1Critical Discourse Studies
    • 3.2A social semiotic perspective
    • 3.3An addition from inference in (multimodal) argumentation
    • 3.4The novelty of the proposed approach
  • 4.A critical reconstruction of SD, HS and AUR’s multimodal argumentation
    • 4.1Corpus selection
    • 4.2The post of the Swedish SD
    • 4.3The post of the Greek HS
    • 4.4The post of the Romanian AUR
    • 4.5Discussion
  • 5.Conclusions and future avenues
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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Serafis, Dimitris & Janina Wildfeuer
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2024. How we argue about the use of images. Journal of Argumentation in Context 13:2 ► pp. 203 ff. DOI logo

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