The Process of the Transfer of Hate Speech to Demonization and Social Polarization

Luis M. Romero-Rodríguez, Bárbara Castillo-Abdul and Pedro Cuesta-Valiño
Additional contact information
Luis M. Romero-Rodríguez: Department of Communication Sciences and Sociology, Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain / ESAI Business School, Universidad de Especialidades Espíritu Santo, Ecuador
Bárbara Castillo-Abdul: Department of Communication Sciences and Sociology, Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain
Pedro Cuesta-Valiño: Department of Economics and Business Administration, University of Alcalá, Spain

Politics and Governance, 2023, vol. 11, issue 2, 109-113

Abstract: We are living through a time of major political changes due to the rise of populist leaders and the resurgence of extreme ideological movements. The emergence of this phenomenon is due, to a large extent, to the ease with which these political actors can disseminate and spread their messages without any limits through social networks, leaving aside the former “fourth power” of the media as filterers and reinterpreters of information. Generally, the formula used by these leaders and movements is usually based on symbolic social division and polarization through hate speeches that allow demonizing their adversaries while antagonizing the issuers: a discursive “us” against “them” based on verbal violence to dehumanize an “exogroup.” We want to discuss the importance of understanding the process of communicational transfer—which begins with hate speech and evolves into demonization and social polarization—as a strategic basis for creating an ideal scenario for the growth and strengthening of populist discourse, which is reductionist and simplifying in nature.

Keywords: hate discourse; political communication; political responsibility; social media (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6663 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:109-113

DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i2.6663

Access Statistics for this article

Politics and Governance is currently edited by Carolina Correia

More articles in Politics and Governance from Cogitatio Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by António Vieira () and IT Department ().