Race and racism in social media communication: the Tuscan study case between historical roots and new strategies

Journal title SOCIETÀ E STORIA
Author/s Emanuele Ertola
Publishing Year 2023 Issue 2022/178
Language Italian Pages 29 P. 666-694 File size 244 KB
DOI 10.3280/SS2022-178002
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The article identifies and analyzes racism within today’s public discourse, with the aim of tracing the continuity of the idea of race inherited from the colonial past. The sources examined are the social media accounts belonging to parties, militants, and organizations of the populist and nationalist Right. The author isolates the textual and audiovisual contents that explicitly or implicitly use the concept of "race" to convey a political message. Drawing on a large Italian and international literature, the author explores a very recent source with a historiographical approach, in order to establish how deeply imageries, stereotypes and prejudices dating back to nineteenth-and twentieth-century racism are rooted, and the way in which these residues of the past are today taken up and disseminated according to precise political strategies.

Keywords: racism, colonialism, public discourse, social media, populism, neo-fascism.

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Emanuele Ertola, Razza e razzismo nella comunicazione social: il caso toscano tra eredità storiche e nuove strategie in "SOCIETÀ E STORIA " 178/2022, pp 666-694, DOI: 10.3280/SS2022-178002