Alternative für Deutschland [AfD], a German radical right-wing populist party, is the most successful party among all the German right wings after World War II. This thesis multimodally analyses populist discourses in AfD's posters for the most recent Bundestag election to identify its campaign strategy. It tries to fill two research gaps: little visual analysis in populism research and little research on the 2021 Bundestag election campaign. The research question is: What strategies can be read from AfD's election posters in 2021 within the historical and socio-political context of Germany? Multimodal discourse analysis [MDA] was used to examine 19 election posters of AfD for the 2021 Bundestag election, which are issue-oriented and contain photos. Further comparative analysis was carried out using 2021 Facebook posts and 2017 posters.
The analysis reveals the factors that give the AfD's 2021 posters a unified and moderate impression, the intended target groups and the discourses embedded in the posters. Most of the AfD's strategy was typical populist; however, it also had rare features of European radical right-wing populist parties, such as no Eurosceptic element or no depiction of demonising outsiders. Moreover, AfD made new attempts to portray a second-generation immigrant as on "our" side. They are a significant change compared to the 2017 posters, but not a change in ideology itself. The AfD's strategy for the 2021 posters is to euphemise the exclusion of outsiders and avoid criticism that AfD is xenophobic. Also, some Facebook posts having a relatively limited audience contain salient xenophobic elements. By using different campaign tools and design approaches depending on the target group, the AfD's strategy became more professionalised.
Anotace v angličtině
Alternative für Deutschland [AfD], a German radical right-wing populist party, is the most successful party among all the German right wings after World War II. This thesis multimodally analyses populist discourses in AfD's posters for the most recent Bundestag election to identify its campaign strategy. It tries to fill two research gaps: little visual analysis in populism research and little research on the 2021 Bundestag election campaign. The research question is: What strategies can be read from AfD's election posters in 2021 within the historical and socio-political context of Germany? Multimodal discourse analysis [MDA] was used to examine 19 election posters of AfD for the 2021 Bundestag election, which are issue-oriented and contain photos. Further comparative analysis was carried out using 2021 Facebook posts and 2017 posters.
The analysis reveals the factors that give the AfD's 2021 posters a unified and moderate impression, the intended target groups and the discourses embedded in the posters. Most of the AfD's strategy was typical populist; however, it also had rare features of European radical right-wing populist parties, such as no Eurosceptic element or no depiction of demonising outsiders. Moreover, AfD made new attempts to portray a second-generation immigrant as on "our" side. They are a significant change compared to the 2017 posters, but not a change in ideology itself. The AfD's strategy for the 2021 posters is to euphemise the exclusion of outsiders and avoid criticism that AfD is xenophobic. Also, some Facebook posts having a relatively limited audience contain salient xenophobic elements. By using different campaign tools and design approaches depending on the target group, the AfD's strategy became more professionalised.
Alternative für Deutschland [AfD], a German radical right-wing populist party, is the most successful party among all the German right wings after World War II. This thesis multimodally analyses populist discourses in AfD's posters for the most recent Bundestag election to identify its campaign strategy. It tries to fill two research gaps: little visual analysis in populism research and little research on the 2021 Bundestag election campaign. The research question is: What strategies can be read from AfD's election posters in 2021 within the historical and socio-political context of Germany? Multimodal discourse analysis [MDA] was used to examine 19 election posters of AfD for the 2021 Bundestag election, which are issue-oriented and contain photos. Further comparative analysis was carried out using 2021 Facebook posts and 2017 posters.
The analysis reveals the factors that give the AfD's 2021 posters a unified and moderate impression, the intended target groups and the discourses embedded in the posters. Most of the AfD's strategy was typical populist; however, it also had rare features of European radical right-wing populist parties, such as no Eurosceptic element or no depiction of demonising outsiders. Moreover, AfD made new attempts to portray a second-generation immigrant as on "our" side. They are a significant change compared to the 2017 posters, but not a change in ideology itself. The AfD's strategy for the 2021 posters is to euphemise the exclusion of outsiders and avoid criticism that AfD is xenophobic. Also, some Facebook posts having a relatively limited audience contain salient xenophobic elements. By using different campaign tools and design approaches depending on the target group, the AfD's strategy became more professionalised.
Anotace v angličtině
Alternative für Deutschland [AfD], a German radical right-wing populist party, is the most successful party among all the German right wings after World War II. This thesis multimodally analyses populist discourses in AfD's posters for the most recent Bundestag election to identify its campaign strategy. It tries to fill two research gaps: little visual analysis in populism research and little research on the 2021 Bundestag election campaign. The research question is: What strategies can be read from AfD's election posters in 2021 within the historical and socio-political context of Germany? Multimodal discourse analysis [MDA] was used to examine 19 election posters of AfD for the 2021 Bundestag election, which are issue-oriented and contain photos. Further comparative analysis was carried out using 2021 Facebook posts and 2017 posters.
The analysis reveals the factors that give the AfD's 2021 posters a unified and moderate impression, the intended target groups and the discourses embedded in the posters. Most of the AfD's strategy was typical populist; however, it also had rare features of European radical right-wing populist parties, such as no Eurosceptic element or no depiction of demonising outsiders. Moreover, AfD made new attempts to portray a second-generation immigrant as on "our" side. They are a significant change compared to the 2017 posters, but not a change in ideology itself. The AfD's strategy for the 2021 posters is to euphemise the exclusion of outsiders and avoid criticism that AfD is xenophobic. Also, some Facebook posts having a relatively limited audience contain salient xenophobic elements. By using different campaign tools and design approaches depending on the target group, the AfD's strategy became more professionalised.
The Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) is the most successful party among all the German right-wings after World War II. This thesis multimodally analyses the AfD populist discourse from its election posters in 2021 to answer the following research question: What strategies can be read from the AfD election posters in 2021 within the historical and socio-political context of Germany?
Zásady pro vypracování
The Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) is the most successful party among all the German right-wings after World War II. This thesis multimodally analyses the AfD populist discourse from its election posters in 2021 to answer the following research question: What strategies can be read from the AfD election posters in 2021 within the historical and socio-political context of Germany?
Seznam doporučené literatury
Bhatia, Aditi. Discursive Illusions in Public Discourse. New York: Routledge, 2015.
Holtz-Bacha, Christina and Bengt Johansson, eds. Election Posters Around the Globe: Political Campaigning in the Public Space. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, 2017.
Mudde, Cas, and Cristobal Rovira Kaltwasser. Populism: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017.
Müller, Jan-Werner. What Is Populism? Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016.
Veneti, Anastasia et al. eds. Visual Political Communication. Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.
Seznam doporučené literatury
Bhatia, Aditi. Discursive Illusions in Public Discourse. New York: Routledge, 2015.
Holtz-Bacha, Christina and Bengt Johansson, eds. Election Posters Around the Globe: Political Campaigning in the Public Space. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, 2017.
Mudde, Cas, and Cristobal Rovira Kaltwasser. Populism: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017.
Müller, Jan-Werner. What Is Populism? Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016.
Veneti, Anastasia et al. eds. Visual Political Communication. Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.