From Cambridge to Charlottesville: Media outlets and the relation between social media and far-right radicalisation

Sammanfattning: Far-right radicalisation and social media are subjects that are increasingly addressed in a joint fashion. However, a nuanced understanding of the features of this relationship remain elusive due to their novelty, research emphasis in large organisations, and the difficulty to access radical groups and individuals. Online media outlets are one of the few channels through which these features can be addressed, yet their lecture is affected by critical sociopolitical contexts and their own political agendas. Consequently, to understand the debate between far-right radicalisation and social media expansion I, first, examined the way in which online media outlets portray the three key elements of their relationship – social media, the far-right, and the process of radicalisation – and, second, I examined the way in which these portrayals shape the debate itself. By cross-analysing 24 articles from the UK and the US with 19 in-depth analytical questions I established three common “struggles” by which online media shape the debate by portraying the violent relationship between the three core elements: anti-establishment tension; the reshaping of social relations; and control of information.