Challenging ‘Leftist Big Tech’ through Right-wing Alternative Social Media: Parler and Albicla in Polish Conservative Media Discourse

Szymon  Wigienka

Tytuły

Abstrakt

Numerous “free speech” platforms have been launched in recent years as a form of protest against content moderation practices on mainstream social media. This paper asks the question of how the issue of these emerging right-wing alternative social media is discursively constructed, taking as an example the Polish conservative media debate over the American service Parler and its Polish equivalent Albicla. Taking a critically discursive approach, the article provides an analysis of the discursive strategies applied, and critically embeds the findings in the broader socio-political context, as well as in the alternative media theory. The results show that, drawing on the wartime rhetoric and numerous references to Poland’s non-democratic past, the discourse creates a populist narrative of identity conflict between two opposing groups: “them” – hostile “leftists” seeking to impose a radical, progressive social order and “us” – oppressed protectors of freedom and common-sense values. The study additionally indicates that the issue is also utilised for the purposes of rivalry between domestic right-wing factions. Furthermore, the data contains frequent reference to issues of political economy and thus, intriguingly, overlaps to some extent with left-wing media critique, in that both agree on the necessity of contesting a monopolised media market and developing alternative means of communication.

Słowa kluczowe

Albicla, alternative social media, critical discourse analysis, Parler

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Informacje

Informacje: Zarządzanie Mediami, 2023, Tom 11, Numer 1, s. 87 - 107

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4467/23540214ZM.23.006.19493

Typ artykułu: Oryginalny artykuł naukowy

Autorzy

Szymon Wigienka

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4769-5458

Doctoral School of Social Sciences, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń

Publikacja: 2023

Status artykułu: Otwarte

Licencja: CC BY

Finansowanie artykułu:

This work was supported by the “Excellence Initiative – Research University” programme at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń under the grant “Politicized discourses on countering disinformation in the Polish media. A preliminary study” [90-SIDUB.6102.12.2021.G4NCUS1]

Udział procentowy autorów:

Szymon Wigienka (Autor) - 100%

Numer klasyfikacji:

JEL Classification System:

Related Disciplines (Y80)

Korekty artykułu:

-

Języki publikacji:

Angielski

Liczba wyświetleń: 321

Liczba pobrań: 75

<p>Challenging ‘Leftist Big Tech’ through Right-wing Alternative Social Media: Parler and Albicla in Polish Conservative Media Discourse</p>

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