Congratulations to Caterina Froio

Caterina Froio, Assistant Professor at Sciences Po, member of the CEE, earned her accrediation to supervise research (HDR) in political science at Sciences Po on December 13, 2023. Her habilitation thesis is entitled "The Cultural Shift: Digital Media's Role in Normalizing Far‑Right Politics”.

The jury was composed of:

• Donatella Della Porta,
• Florence Faucher,
• Cas Mudde,
• Nicolas Sauger,
• Ralph Schroder,
• Emilie van Haute.

Abstract

Santiago Abascal, Marine Le Pen, Giorgia Meloni, Donald Trump or Alice Weidel. Current discourse is primarily centered around concerns regarding the far-right's use of digital technology as a potential threat to democracy. But does the use of digital media contribute to support for the far right? The habilitation contends that this fear that dominates public and elite imagination is not supported empirically. It argues that we must shift attention from these suggestive but empirically exceptional phenomena to more structural transformations in the public arena brought by the far right, namely processes of attention allocation in public debates eventually leading to the normalization of far-right ideas and to a cultural shift in the way people discuss and engage with political issues.

Combining the literature in political science, media and political communication, this volume is developed along six empirical studies which deal with the two main complementary mechanisms explaining the interplay between digital technologies and support for the far right. First, I explore the digital communication strategies of far-right collective actors on social media and websites, to study how digital campaigns shape the visibility of far-right agendas and the diffusion of their ideas among the public. Second, I consider the impact of digital media such as online newspapers and news channels, to assess how exposure and consumption of these digital outlets shapes individual attitudes and vote for the far right.

The habilitation builds on extensive empirical material including original digital and protest event data. Leveraging Large-N comparisons and case studies covering Europe and the US, it finds that digital media help far-right frames to enter public debates, but only under the condition that these frames align but distort liberal values. Similarly, this volume dispels common misunderstandings about far-right supporters by revealing that their online media consumption is not significantly distinct from those of other voters. Far-right sympathizers, contrary to misconceptions, engage with public service news and mainstream media, showing no notable preference for so-called hyperpartisan websites over legacy press.

Establishing the linkage between political behaviour and political communication dynamics, the habilitation sheds light on the mechanisms that facilitate the normalization of the far right in contemporary democracies. In a broader context, these findings contribute to our understanding of the potential impacts of the growing use of digital means of communication in politics.