Decoding Political Discourse in the Digital Age

Speaker: Dr. Claudia Roberta Combei

Abstract:

Political communication is built on the interplay of various discursive strategies, and considerable time and resources are invested in making it e;ective for shaping public opinion and obtaining consensus from the electorate. Although studies on political discourse analysis – including NLP and corpus linguistics approaches – have traditionally focused on verbal elements, more recent research has explored the relevance of non-verbal aspects in political communication, particularly on digital platforms. The present study investigates how multimodality (operationalized as a combination of written text, emojis, images, videos, and prosody) accounts for the ways political actors convey their messages. The findings of this research, based on a multimodal corpus of Italian and British political discourse, demonstrate the role of multimodal strategies in constructing and delivering messages that transmit both political and non-political content. These strategies contribute to enhancing relatability, redefining political engagement and activism, fostering and maintaining in-group dynamics, and facilitating individualized political communication