Jordan McSwiney, University of Sydney

This project analyses the social media networks and content of four Australian parties, assessing their relationship to the far right at the time of the 2019 Australian federal election. Using social network analysis, it maps their relationship to a broader network of far-right actors in Australia on Facebook and Twitter, identifying pathways of communication, mobilisation and recruitment. This is combined with qualitative content analysis, which finds little evidence of party organisation or campaign mobilisation on either platform, despite the context of a first-order election. Instead, these parties use social media primarily for the construction of exclusionary collective identities and the development and dissemination of nativist frames targeting Muslims and anti-elite frames targeting centre-left politicians.

Link to paper

Jordan McSwiney is is a PhD candiate in the Department of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney. He is a 2019 recipiant of the Freilich Project ECR Small Grant.