Populism, authoritarianism and uncivil online public sphere

Comparative analysis of user comments on Facebook pages of selected media in Austria and Slovenia on the so-called »refugee crisis« has shown that populist comments provoke responses in which users avoid argumentative debate, use hate speech, and thus contribute to the spread of an increasingly uncivil online public sphere. At the past consortium meeting of the POPMED research project, which took place in Izola, May 26-28, we also discussed the conceptual definitions of populism, authoritarianism and illiberalism. We also focused on the analysis of the role of gender in populist communication, identifying the predominant representations of female migrants of the Islamic faith in the political and media field as a security challenge and threat to European civilization and culture.