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Article published In: Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 25:1 (2026) ► pp.71–96

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The good, the bad, and the ugly

Anti-Ukrainian narratives on Polish Twitter

ORCiD logo with link | Kozminski Univeristy
ORCiD logo with link | Kozminski Univeristy | Harvard University
Published online: 17 January 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.24124.lip
Abstract
The article focuses on anti-Ukrainian narratives spread on Twitter. We performed a Thick Big Data analysis of words and hashtags connected with anti-Ukrainian narratives. We collected 16,700 tweets from 25 January 2023 to 22 February 2023, focusing on the most popular and commented ones. Furthermore, we conducted multi-modal narrative and rhetorical analyses to distinguish the typology of narrations. This article sheds light on how vital narration in disinformation campaigns and media warfare on social media is. Most tweets contained narration highlighting the alleged appropriation of Polish culture by displaying Ukrainian nationality. Such narration strongly influences a sense of insecurity and alienation in one’s own country. We discovered that Ukrainian-related posts have negative sentiment and frequently spread disinformation.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Discursive Traditions and Anti-Pluralism in Poland in the context of relations with Ukraine
  • 3.Methods
  • 4.Analysis
    • 4.1Metadata
    • 4.2Contents
    • 4.3Basic message
    • 4.4Narrative and rhetorical analysis
    • 4.5Visual analysis
  • 5.Discussion and conclusions
  • Competing interests
  • Ethical statements
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
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