TWITTER COMMUNICATION OF FRENCH POLITICIANS AS A REACTION TO RUSSIAN FULL-SCALE INVASION OF UKRAINE (BASED ON THE ACCOUNTS OF VALÉRIE PÉCRESSE, ÉRIC ZEMMOUR AND MARINE LE PEN)
Keywords:
Twitter communication, Russian fullscale invasion of Ukraine, French politicians, content analysis, thematic analysis, critical discourse analysis.
Abstract
Nowadays the civilized world is in the process of instant developing, scientific progress and active implementation of modern technologies. New media as a part of modern technologies can be a tool for preventing wars or media coverage of them. Starting February 24, 2022, social networks were flooded with information about Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine coming from Ukrainian and foreign political actors who used social media to communicate with their target audience. In this article Twitter has been explored as a means of political communication, Twitter accounts of French politicians (Valérie Pécresse, Éric Zemmour and Marine Le Pen) and their reaction to the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine over a period of January-April 2022 has been analyzed. Due to the versatility of the topic our research has been conducted using quantitative content, qualitative content, and thematic analysis, as well as elements of critical discourse analysis. The article concludes that despite belonging to right wing political parties, French politicians instrumentalise the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine differently. Center-right Valérie Pécresse supports Ukraine, approves sanctions against Russia, calls for help and decisive action from the EU and NATO, does not approve of EU expansion, referring to Ukraine's accession to the EU, and the end of cooperation of French industries with Russia. Whereas far-right Éric Zemmour and Marine Le Pen demonstrate an ambiguous attitude: they respect the sovereignty of Ukraine, call for humanitarian aid and condemn the Russian invasion, but at the same time they demonstrate a pro-Russian position, continue Russian narratives about the responsibility of the USA and NATO, use Russian transliteration of Ukrainian cities and territories, oppose sanctions, and call for peace, avoiding the direct nomination of war.
References
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17. Fairclough, N. (1992) Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity Press.
18. Fairclough, N. (1993). Critical discourse analysis and the marketization of public discourse: the universities. Discourse & Society, 4(2), 133–168. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42888773
19. Futàk-Campbell, B. (2020). Political Synergy: How the European Far-Right and Russia Have Joined Forces Against Brussels. Atlantisch Perspectief, 44(1), 30–35. https://www.jstor.org/ stable/48600543
20. Gainous, J., & Wagner, K. M. (2014).Tweeting to Power: The Social Media Revolution in American Politics.Oxford University Press.
21. Gidron, N. (2021, May 21). What's right for centre-right parties.UK in a Changing Europe. Retrieved April 26, 2023, from https://ukandeu. ac.uk/whats-right-for-centre-right-parties/
22. Gidron, N., & Ziblatt, D. (2018). Center-Right Political Parties in Advanced Democracies. Annual Review of Political Science, Vol. 22:17-35, 17–35. https://doi.org/10.1146/ annurev-polisci-090717-092750
23. Jungherr, A. (2015). Analyzing Political Communication with Digital Trace Data.Twitter as Political Communication Space: Publics, Prominent Users, and Politicians (pp. 69–106). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20319-5_4
24. Mangerotti, P., Ribeiro, V., & González-Aldea, P. (2021). Populism, Twitter, and Political Communication: An analysis of Jair Bolsonaro’s tweets during the 2018 election campaign. Brazilian Journalism Research, 17(3), 596–627. https://doi.org/10.25200/BJR.v17n3.2021.1415
25. Marine Le Pen [@MLP_officiel] (n.d.). Tweets [Twitter profile]. Twitter. Retrieved February 25, 2023, from https://twitter.com/MLP_officiel
26. Mercier, A. (2015). Twitter, espace politique, espace polémique: L’exemple des tweet-campagnes municipales en France (janvier-mars 2014). Les Cahiers du numérique, 11, 145–168. https://www.cairn.info/revue--2015-4-page-145.htm
27. Mokadem, H. (2022, March 7). Guerre en Ukraine : Bruno Le Maire appelle les Français à réduire leur consommation d’énergie. Marianne. Retrieved February 25, 2023, from https://www.marianne.net/politique/gouvernement/ guerre-en-ukraine-bruno-le-maire-appelleles- francais-a-reduire-leur-consommationdenergie? utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitt er&Echobox=1646649935#xtor=CS2-5
28. Neuendorf, K.A. The Content Analysis Guidebook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
29. Parmelee J-H.,& Bichard S-L. (2012). Politics and the Twitter Revolution. How Tweets influence the relationships between Political leaders and the Public, Maryland, Lexington Books.
30. Polyakova, A. (2014). STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: Putin and Europe’s Far Right. World Affairs, 177(3), 36–40. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43555253
31. Roonemaa, H., Laine, M., & Weiss, M. (2022, March 24). Exclusive: Russia Backs Europe’s Far Right. NEW LINES MAGAZINE. Retrieved April 26, 2023, from https://newlinesmag.com/reportage/ exclusive-russia-backs-europes-far-right/
32. Seitkazin, R. (2021). Political Communication and Influence Through Twitter. Pro Publico Bono, 8(4), 94–105. https://doi.org/10.32575/ppb.2020.4.7
33. Shen, F., Zhang, E., Zhang, H., Ren, W., Jia, Q., & He, Y. (2023).Examining the differences between human and bot social media accounts: A case study of the Russia-Ukraine War.First Monday, 28(2).https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v28i2.12777
34. Skogerbø, E., & Larsson, A. O. (2021). Comparing Twitter and Instagram as platforms for party leader communication: Findings from the 2017 Norwegian election.First Monday, 26(10). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v26i10.10638
35. Stieglitz, S., & Dang-Xuan, L. (2012). Social media and political communication: a social media analytics framework. Social Network Analysis and Mining, 3, 1277 – 1291.
36. Stieglitz, S., Brockmann, T., & Dang-Xuan, L. (2012). Usage Of Social Media For Political Communication. Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems.
37. Valérie Pécresse [@vpecresse] (n.d.). Tweets [Twitter profile]. Twitter. Retrieved February 25, 2023, from https://twitter.com/vpecresse
38. Vyas, P., Vyas, G., & Dhiman, G. (2023). RUemo – The Classification Framework for Russia-Ukraine War-Related Societal Emotions on Twitter through Machine Learning. Algorithms, 16(2), 69.https://doi.org/10.3390/a16020069
39. Zhang, Yan & Wildemuth, Barbara M. (2005). Qualitative Analysis of Content by. Human Brain Mapping 30 (7):2197–2206.
40. Вайєр А. М. Інтерактивні форми політичної комунікації. Актуальні проблеми політики. 2019. Вип. 64. С. 134–144.
41. Губарева В. Рупор мілленіалів та політиків: чому ми досі не користуємось Твіттером. Рубрика. URL: https://rubryka.com/article/ twitter/ (дата звернення: 25.02.2023).
42. Кочкіна Н. Ю. Особливості комунікаційних стратегій у соціальних мережах. Науковий вісник Міжнародного гуманітарного університету. Серія : Економіка і менеджмент. 2017. Вип. 25(1). С. 125–129. URL: http://nbuv.gov.ua/ UJRN/Nvmgu_eim_2017_25(1)__28 (дата звернення: 25.02.2023).
43. Краснякова А. О. Інтернет-комунікація як чинник становлення політичної суб’єктності особистості. Проблеми політичної психології. 2015. Вип. 2. С. 243–253. URL: http://nbuv.gov.ua/ UJRN/pppr_2015_2_24 (дата звернення: 25.02.2023).
44. Парфенюк І. М. Соціальні мережі інтернету як засіб комунікації політичного лідера (на прикладі соцмереж Президента України). Бібліотекознавство. Документознавство. Інформологія. 2017. № 2. С. 58–65. URL: http://nbuv. gov.ua/UJRN/bdi_2017_2_10 (дата звернення: 25.02.2023).
45. Стеблина Н. Азовська криза та українська передвиборча кампанія у Твіттері: формальний аналіз політичного тексту (на прикладі акаунту Петра Порошенка). Гуманітарні візії. Вип. 6(1), С. 14–20. URL: https://doi.org/10.23939/ shv2020.01.014 (дата звернення: 25.02.2023).
46. Тлуста А. О. Вплив соціальних мереж на політичну стабільність держави. Актуальні проблеми міжнародних відносин. 2011. Вип. 101(1). С. 195–201. URL: http://nbuv.gov.ua/ UJRN/apmv_2011_101(1)__27.
47. Третяк О. А. Вплив новітніх комунікаційних Інтернет–мереж на розвиток публічної сфери політики. Економічний часопис ХХІ. 2011. № 11/12. С. 37–39.
Published
2023-08-28
How to Cite
Siden, O. I. (2023). TWITTER COMMUNICATION OF FRENCH POLITICIANS AS A REACTION TO RUSSIAN FULL-SCALE INVASION OF UKRAINE (BASED ON THE ACCOUNTS OF VALÉRIE PÉCRESSE, ÉRIC ZEMMOUR AND MARINE LE PEN). New Philology, (90), 99-115. https://doi.org/10.26661/2414-1135-2023-90-15
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