TWO FACES of TWITTER POPULISM in THE NETHERLANDS (summary, viz and data)

(this is a summary of my Dutch articles about twitter populism in the Netherlands)

Twitter is an interesting tool for politicians: it creates possibilities for direct communication with the public. Journalists as intermediary between voters and politicians become obsolete. The American president Trump is using this tool to create government based on populism: surpassing the parliament in decision making or putting pressure on the parliament through direct public support.  In Netherlands two right-wing members of the house of representatives are following this successful communication using Twitter.

Two Faces
I have downloaded and analyzed the tweets of these tow politicians: Geert Wilders, leader of the PVV(freedom party) and Thierry Baudet (forum for democracy). The outcome of this research is that both are right-wing populists. The content of their tweets shows that populism has two faces: a blue collar version(Wilders) and a more intellectual version(Baudet). While Wilders tweets express an open xenophobia; Baudet tweets focus on sovereignty, anti-EU arguments are used to wrap up xenophobia in immigration.

Here is a scatterdiagram showing the tweets of Wilders and Baudet, together with the tweets of leader of the socialists(Asscher and the Greens(Klaver)

(click to enlarge)


Explanation: The position of the documents with tweets of the four politicians are the red circles. The horizontal line is the x dimension, explaining 49% of the variations. I define this dimension as: from xenophobia to identity. The Y axis, explaining 37%, is from cooperation to sovereignty. The beginning and end of both axis are the red squares. These positions can be confirmed by the world clouds

Below you find a link to my data uploaded in Voyant, so you can inspect the data. Click top right to export or choose an other visualisation; click down left to choose a document.

DATA TWITTER POPULISME

Twitterdata van Wilders, Baudet, Asscher en Klaver geupload naar Voyant.
Hier is de interface voor het maken van analyse en visualisaties.

Rechtsboven verschillende  opties voor analyse; linksonder selecteer documenten.
De gemaakte analyses kunnen ook worden geexporteerd!

VOYANT TOOLS
(klik op export rechtsboven om te vergroten of andere analyse)


Hieronder een scatterdiagram van de vier twitterbestanden:
(klik om te vergroten)

Toelichting: De positie van de vier documenten met tweets is rood omcirkelt. De eindpunten van de dimensies zijn de rode vierkanten. De x as heb ik geinterpreteerd als: van vreemdelingenhaat naar identiteit; deze as verklaart 49% van de variantie. Y as heb ik opgevat als: van samenwerking naar souvereiniteit; verklaart 37% van de variantie.

TWO FACES OF TWITTER POPULISM IN THE NETHERLANDS

Twitter - mini-blogging or messaging service on the internet - has changed the process of communication. In professional communication networks like for example journalism Twitter is an important new source. Twitter brought fundamental change

in professional political communication networks. The classical model of communication of Berelson and Lazersfeld, known as ‘two step flow of communication,’ seems to have lost it predominance to Twitter. Direct communication to the audiences gained in importance. An important issue in discussion about the consequences of Twitter is the idea of equality in the process of communication. Because in principle the technology behind Twitter does not discriminate between users, whether they are politicians, journalists or ordinary citizens. This equality between users lowers the threshold to participate in the process of communication, and therefore it is said Twitter contributes to democracy. With references to the classical study of Jurgen Habermas about the changes in the public sphere, Twitter could enhance the process of democratic decision making and contribute to open public debate.

Optimism

This technological optimism about Twitter emerged in the nineties of past century when the Internet was still freely developing. However, in the light of recent developments, especially the rise of populism on Twitter, one can have serious doubts. In this study we will analyze the tweets of two Dutch politicians: Geert Wilders (PVV, Party for Freedom) and Thierry Baudet (FvD, Forum for Democracy), Both parties are relatively new in the Dutch political landscape. They both rose because of the resistance against the neo-liberalism that replaced the traditional party system based on religion and ideology.

HET TWITTER-POPULISME VAN WILDERS EN BAUDET

Twitter heeft het communicatieproces fundamenteel veranderd. In professionele communicatienetwerken als de journalistiek  is Twitter een belangrijke nieuwsbron. In politieke netwerken heeft  het klassieke communicatiemodel van Berelsen en Lazarsfeld aan belang ingeboet. Niet meer ‘two step flow’, maar directe communicatie is het trefwoord. Een belangrijk punt in debatten over het effect van Twitter is dat het een gelijk speelveld creëert. Immers, er zijn in principe geen technologische aspecten die een onderscheid maken tussen de participanten, of het nu politici, journalisten of burgers zijn. De verlaging van de drempel schept gelijkheid die ten goede komt aan het democratische proces is de redenering. In die zin zou Twitter bijdragen tot een vergroting van de democratische besluitvorming en publieke discussie, vaak met verwijzingen naar Habermas’ studie over openbaarheid.

Dit technologisch optimisme, dat hand in hand ging het de opkomst van Internet blijkt nauwelijks stand te kunnen houden in het licht van de feitelijke ontwikkelingen. Meer in het bijzonder als we kijken naar het twitteren van Wilders en Baudet.

Protect your Privacy against Surveillance Capitalism

Compared to China we are doing much better, most people think. Here the government is not watching us like a digital big brother. Using face recognition on each corner, watching your online behavior and storing all these data in file. This only partly true as here the big tech companies are watching us; surveillance capitalism by Facebook Google and the like. Our digital data, our wanderings on the internet are collected, exchanged and sold, for advertising and finally to make money. Data as silicon snake oil. Also here your privacy is under attack.

Some time ago I down loaded some location data collected by Google and it was scary to see details of my whereabouts. Here is the story with the maps(http://d3-media.blogspot.com/2018/09/google-data-traveling-back-in-time.html).

How can you protect yourself against this breach of privacy? 

MoodleBox

LAMP
Moodle is an excellent e-learning environment. The software is open source. Free, open  and completely controlled by the admin. However installing Moodle is a bit complicated and time consuming. Apart from a complete web server, a database must be installed too. You need a complete LAMP sever(Linux, Apache, Mysql and Php) . For small e-learning project it is also overkill.

MOODLE IN A PI
The solution for small project, fast and easy install in Moodlebox, running on RaspberryPi.
Download the image and flash it on an sd-card of minimal 32 GB. You have various options to connect to the service. Over Ethernet, when RaspberryPi is connected to a LAN; access from outside, from the internet is also possible, using a domain name and port forwarding. Moodlebox creates its own wireless network, so user can also log in using WiFi. Connecting with an app is the last possibility. The guides for setting up all these different connection is strait forward and easy to use.

CONNECTIONS
For me the most interesting advantage is the scale: a small RaspberryPi that could be used in almost any classroom or computer-lab, and is directly- over LAN or WiFi - accessible. My number of students/journalist in a training is now more than 20, that number can easily handled by the Pi.

EXCEL BASICS
Let's take an example. Excel skills are a prerequisite for data journalism. However you don't want to start from scratch. It is better when the participants have worked a bit with Excel; exactly here is the e-learning environment needed. As preparation  for the training they start at the Moodlebox with the Excel course. 

D3 MEDIA under Water

Bonne Vallon, Seychelles.

At the end of 7 training session at 7 African cities, diving at the last one, Victoria Mahe island.

YouTube: https://youtu.be/sOrZA3jhiYs