Right-wing, populist, controlled by foreign powers? Topic diversification and partisanship in the content structures of German-language alternative media

DOI:	https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2022.2058972
URL:	https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/21670811.2...
Dokumenttyp:	Zeitschriftenartikel
Erscheinungsjahr:	2022
Titel einer Zeitschrift oder einer Reihe:	Digital Journalism
Band/Volume:	10
Heft/Issue:	8
Seitenbereich:	1363-1386
Ort der Veröffentlichung:	London [u.a.]
Verlag:	Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
ISSN:	2167-0811 , 2167-082X
Sprache der Veröffentlichung:	Englisch
Einrichtung:	Philosophische Fakultät > Institut für Medien- u. Kommunikationswissenschaft
Fachgebiet:	070 Nachrichtenmedien, Journalismus, Verlagswesen
Abstract:	This study investigates the overall topic compositions and traces of right-wing populist partisanship in the content structures of German-language digital alternative news outlets. We argue that a topically heterogeneous landscape of right-wing populist alternative news outlets could maximize the reach of right-wing populist messages. Using LDA topic modeling, we explore the topical structures of nine different outlets (n = 66,965 articles) and empirically identify meaningful groups of outlets. Our analyses suggest the existence of two topically heterogeneous clusters of alternative news media: (1) core right-wing populist outlets, with around 45–50% of articles coming from topics that are related to right-wing or populist politics; and (2) topically diverse outlets. The latter group's topic selection also reveals right-wing populist partisanship, but less prominently so, while putting more emphasis on general interest news topics, such as sports, economy, or international relations. This group also includes Russian state-owned RT deutsch and Falun Gong-affiliated Epoch Times whose institutional roots, however, are only partially reflected in their topic selection. Additionally, longitudinal analyses reveal an increase of populism-related topics in both groups around the election date of the 2017 German federal election.