A multimodal semiotic analysis of online "prepper" communities through visual grounded theory methodology, combined with a quantitative hierarchal clu

Right-wing terrorist attacks have increased by 250% since 2014 and are the second most severe threat
to social security in the United Kingdom, with a third of foiled terrorist plots attributed to far-right
extremists since 2017 (Institute for Economics & Peace, 2020). Social media is used as a recruiting tool
for right-wing extremism, with multimodal texts such as memes, videos, and shared articles prevalent in
online communications promoting ideologies. Additionally, the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic
has highlighted and sensationalised the existence of previously fringe groups, such as "doomsday
preppers." The study aims to bridge the gap between the understanding of far-right narratives and the
proliferation of "prepper" ideology on social media by combining a semiotic analysis of multimodal texts
from online survivalist communities with a quantitative hierarchical cluster analysis of user responses to
the texts.
The research will explore the underlying societal and individual mechanisms driving the spread of rightwing
ideology within populist fringe communities and will utilise forms of multimodal communication on
social media platforms, with texts being extracted from communities dedicated to discussions on
"prepping". Additionally, the use of critical realist epistemology will enhance the research by exploring
pre-existing theoretical concepts to propose plausible causal mechanisms acting as tendencies. Through
the interdisciplinary contributions of social and computer scientific analysis, the results will seek to
identify mechanisms within narratives and correlate user responses that contribute to radicalisation,
further supporting an emerging body of research with the potential to inform strategies reducing threats
of terrorism posed by far-right extremists.