Methods for Modelling & Analysing Political Catchwords/phrases in Digital Environments

Familiar catchwords and phrases like 'austerity, 'new normal', 'cost-of-living crisis' appear to capture of-the-moment social concerns. They are used widely in all languages. Here, these are understood as political catchwords/phrases (pol-c) which speak to collective or social concerns. They are distinguished from commercial catchwords/phrases which promote services and products for making profits. Investigating the different, often contrary, emphases and associations in pol-c usage could tell us a great deal about such urgent issues as, for instance, the generation of fake news and disinformation, polarised and conflictual political convictions, populist propaganda and protest mobilisation. The focus of this project is on public digital communications, such as on social networks and through websites. This project extends to communications and pol-c in a range of languages, though its exchanges will mostly be conducted in English.

Researchers based in a number of countries - UK, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Spain, Jordan, India, Canada, Brazil -- will come together in a series of workshops/seminars to develop methods for rigorously studying pol-c. They have expertise in investigating social and digital communication in a range of languages and cultures, and from different disciplinary backgrounds: linguistics, literature, media studies, critical theory, law, digital humanities. They are specialists in important current social issues: e.g., hate speech and anti-austerity protests in the EU, financial crisis in the UK, Palestinian self-determination movements, protests in Hong Kong, religious conflicts in India, post-socialist transition in Bulgaria, disinformation in Brazil. They will meet periodically over 2023-2025 in London, Nicosia, Sofia and Amman, and progressively develop methods for researching pol-c with different local and comparative perspectives in view. They will invite and interact with local researchers and, importantly, with professionals who have hands-on knowledge of pol-c (e.g., journalists, publicists, policy makers). In the process, researchers and professionals from other countries, languages, and backgrounds may join the network.

Through progressive linked discussions, two kinds of general methods for studying pol-c will be formulated. The first focuses on specific pol-c in particular written texts, predominantly online news reports and social network exchanges, but also samples of policy, academic, and creative texts. These are qualitative methods for studying pol-c. The second focuses on how pol-c feature across very large numbers of texts according to certain categories; e.g., reports, blogs, articles. These are quantitative methods. The network will develop such methods with reference to pilot case-studies and presentations on relevant examples. The ambition is to develop methods that could then be applied to all pol-c in any language or cultural setting. The discussions will feature on the project's website/blog, and the results published in a book, journal papers, and popular media articles.

At the end of this networking project, the researchers involved will plan and seek funding for a large project applying the methods developed in this one. As envisaged now, that project will involve building a large multilingual database of pol-c and their usage. Importantly, that project will also develop tools for using pol-c to understand and perhaps mediate in emerging social conflicts for journalists, policy-makers, academics, etc.

The social impact of the networking project will be extensive because it (1) addresses a theme of ubiquitous social relevance and practical import, with a multilingual and multidisciplinary perspective, (2) contextualises it in terms of urgent contemporary social and political concerns, (3) sets up ongoing interactions and knowledge exchange with non-academic professional sectors, (4) is designed to capitalise on all the above by leading into a high-impact applied project.