Lecture on populism and the normalization of right-wing populist communication in times of crisis
Colleagues from the University of Vienna, who are collaborating with the Peace Institute on the international project Political and Media Populism: “Refugee Crisis” in Slovenia and Austria, kindly invite all interested listeners to attend an online lecture on populism and the normalization of right-wing discourse in times of crisis. The lecture will be delivered in German language.
IPW Online Lecture: Daniel Thiele and Ruth Wodak – Is Populism Contagious? On the normalization of right-wing populist communication in times of crisis.
When: Monday, May 17th, 2021, at 4 p.m. Where: online. Lecturers: Daniel Thiele and Ruth Wodak (University of Lancaster). Moderator: Otto Penz.
Summary: The event questions the general conditions of the flourishing of right-wing populist discourse and focuses on the intertwining of affects, various crises, and the media. Until recently, it seemed clear that populism flourished in times of crisis and in a media-enhanced discourse of fear. The so-called “refugee crisis” of 2015, for example, contributed to the spread of right-wing populism into the political mainstream – a phenomenon which led Ruth Wodak to coin the term “shameless normalization of the politics of fear”. In the current “corona crisis”, the relationship between the discourse of fear and populism seems paradoxically reversed: although this crisis increasingly reveals right-wing populist expressions of discontent – for example in the form of protests denying the existence of coronavirus itself – their message is that the pandemic is less dramatic than politicians, media and experts would make us believe. The main goal of the event will be to successfully unravel this obvious paradox.
