Dr. Giulia Evolvi recently published a new article titled “Emotional Politics, Islamophobic Tweet. The Hashtags #Brexit and #chiudiamoiporti” in the Italian journal Partecipazione & Conflitto. In her article, Dr. Evolvi explores how online communication, such as tweets, proves to be effective for political engagement. Tweets that have an Islamophobic tone for example, can create emotional reactions and target specific groups.
Through qualitative observations and textual analysis, Dr. Evolvi found that exploring this emotional antagonism adds complexity to the understanding that people have of Islamophobic conflicts. Additionally, it also adds another layer to how political participation is now based on online communication. It is therefore no surprise that contemporary far-right politicians increasingly distribute messages through social networks.
The article analyses two case studies. The first is Islamophobic tweets sent in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum in 2016, with the hashtag #Brexit. The second case is the Anti-Muslim tweets that contain the hashtag #chiudiamoiporti (close the ports). The full article can be read in English on “Partecipazione & Conflitto”.