Fonseca, Journal of Communication

Dehumanization of Migrants and the Rising Far-Right in Europe: A Text Mining Analysis of Youtube

Oğuz Kuş

İstanbul University, Türkiye

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Abstract

This study identifies the volume and form of sentiment, toxicity and dehumanization in digital discussions targeting refugees, asylum seekers and migrants (RASIM). 32077 comments collected from five YouTube videos. Text mining algorithms developed on RStudio revealed that 42.1% of the comments were written in a negative tone, 19.1% contained clearly toxic content and 17.68% included dehumanizing terms. Additionally, one dehumanizing word exists in approximately every 142 words in the news about refugees. Moreover, in comments containing dehumanizing keywords, a confrontational “us versus them” discourse was constructed through terms such as “invasion” or “invader”; Islamophobic terms; metaphors like “flood” were used to depersonalize and massifies RASIM; and aggressive language including words like “parasite” was employed to portray them as socially dysfunctional. In this regard, it is possible to state that the digital discussions reflect a concrete manifestation of the political discourse repeatedly expressed by the European far-right through mainstream channels.

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