Social networks and digital organisation: far right parties at the 2019 Australian federal election

ABSTRACT

This paper 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, I map their relationship to a broader network of far-right actors in Australia on Facebook and Twitter, identifying pathways of communication, mobilisation and recruitment. The structure of the parties’ networks points to highly centralised, leader-centric organisations, placing them in a vulnerable position in terms of sustainability. 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 collective identities and the development and dissemination of interpretive frames, practices typically associated with social movements rather than political parties.

KEYWORDS:

• Far right
• party organisation
• social media
• Pauline Hanson
• Australia

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Anika Gauja and Ofra Klein for their helpful comments on previous versions of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 This paper follows Mudde’s (2007, 2019) interpretation of the far right: a heterogeneous family of political actors distinguished by a shared ideological core of nativism combined with authoritarianism.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian National University’s Herbert and Valmae Frielich Project early career research small grants scheme.

Notes on contributors

Jordan McSwiney

Jordan McSwiney is a PhD candiate in the Department of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney. His research focuses on political parties and the far right, with an interest in their ideology, organising practices and use of technology.