Political Science: Mass Communication, AFD, and European Elections

This essay delves into the significant role of mass communication strategies in shaping the political landscape of Europe, with a specific focus on the impact of media on political parties and elections. The essay examines the ways in which social media and traditional media platforms are utilized by political entities to influence public opinion and gain electoral advantages. It highlights the case of the Alternative for Deutschland (AFD) party in Germany, analyzing how their use of social media, along with media coverage of immigration issues, contributed to their rise and electoral success. The essay also explores the concepts of media bias, propaganda, and the interconnectedness between political propaganda and media, providing an in-depth analysis of the dynamics that shape the political sphere in Europe. The impact of the AFD party's campaigns and strategies are discussed, including their focus on anti-immigrant sentiments and aggressive messaging, emphasizing their use of media to appeal to voters. The essay further discusses the party's use of social media to disseminate their messages and their communication strategies to gain a competitive advantage over other parties. Furthermore, it explores how media coverage, including the role of journalists and the presentation of news, has contributed to the perceptions of the voters, with a discussion of how AFD party has been able to manipulate the mass media to gain favor. The essay concludes by assessing the influence of right-wing movements on the youth culture of the country and limitations and opportunities regarding the beliefs and values of the AFD party.

Running head: POLITICAL SCIENCE
Political Science
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
The aim of the following essay is to discuss the overall role of the mass communication
strategies in creating an influence over the political periphery in Europe. Media has always been
a very strong factor to inspire the day to day operations of the government, corporate
organizations and even the political parties in the world. This is why political parties use the
social media and other media entities that would be helpful for them to get the votes and win the
general elections of the country (Berbuir, Lewandowsky and Siri 2015). In this essay, two
important contexts would be considered on how to use social media for the gain in the political
contexts and propaganda in Europe,
Almost all the political parties in Europe have been very much active and they are prone
to use the social media for their benefits. The two contexts that would be discussed in this paper
are the use of social media by AFD party in Germany and how media constantly mentioned
about the immigration had been particularly helpful for them to win the election in the year 2017.
The use of social media by the AFD party has been a matter of great importance in the context of
European politics (Berbuir, Lewandowsky and Siri 2015). The far right political parties and their
rise have been measured as a unique matter in this scenario. Therefore, their rise to power
through winning the elections will be discussed in this paper. The aggressive messages and
polarization used by them in the context of the elections would be discussed in this paper
properly.
Use of media for political propaganda in Europe
The political propaganda and the use of media are deeply interconnected in the context of
Europe. Therefore, it has been a matter of research how the social media policies have helped the

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political parties in different countries of Europe like France, Germany and Russia. When the
general elections of the countries come, the party leaders opt to use these media communities to
attract the attention of the voters (Berbuir, Lewandowsky and Siri 2015). In this modern
scenario, voters often complain that the party leaders do not communicate with them during their
entire tenure and come to them only when it is the time for the elections. In this turbulent social
scenario, the political orientation of the voters often tends to vary from one political party to
another (Braunthal 2010). This is why the AFD party for Germany has taken up the role of the
persuading the common public through their manifesto and promises that they would surely
fulfill after winning the elections.
Very often the scenario changes in the case of the local, national and other election
procedures. The decision of giving the votes will simply depend upon the consciousness of the
voters. In this scenario, the Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) party has been able to persuade
the voters that will be beneficial for them (Braunthal 2010). This party and their leaders have
evidently spread their messages through the internet and other media communities like
traditional media as TV, radio, newspaper and others. The national election in the year 2017
changed many things in the context of Germany. The AFD party came to power with the vast use
of social media in their favor. This is how their influence on the minds of the measures could be
measured (Braunthal 2010). Their electoral campaigns have been regarded as inflammatory and
aggressive. This kind of campaigning has never been seen before. The campaigns of the AFD
party were based on the anti-immigrant and anti-establishment policies in the country. Therefore,
it has been a revolutionary campaign that waved off their opponents cleanly (Franzmann 2017).

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The power of media and prominence of AFD party
In the Bundestag, this is one of the most important factors to highlight that AFD has risen
as the third largest political party in Germany. The first two largest parties are Christian
Democrats (CDU/ CSU) and Social Democrats (SDP). According to the opinion of the critics,
they have pointed at the media because media has been the main power behind them to give
them prominence in the German politics (Schmitt-Beck 2017). Some of groups like Frankfurter
Allegemeine Zeitung had accused the media and their journalists for this unexpected rise of the
AFD party (Beyer and Weldon 2018). In the context of the political dominance, it must be said
that AFD party has used the social media for their benefits in a big way (Lees 2018).
Therefore, the ways mainstream traditional media has covered the AFD news and their
propaganda has paved the way for their rise to prominence. The role of the media bias has to be
considered as the central factor behind this (Olsen 2018). The AFD party had completely
dominated and manipulated the mass media in favor of them. Some of the factors that could be
discussed in this issue are the matter regarding arousing fears in the minds of common people
about the immigrants and ethnic minority people. This has caused a fear within the minds of
common people in this discourse (Beyer and Weldon 2018). In this case, media bias played a
huge role in convincing the voters to vote for AFD as they have highlighted the above mentioned
issues in front of the public. This worked very smoothly to gain the faith of these voters (Melnyk
2017).
On the other hand, the matter of the left-wing media has not been able to persuade voters
and get rid of their fears about those ethnic minorities and immigrants. However, very few
evidences have been found about the fact that media was actually biased (Neudert 2017). The
extremism of the right parties like AFD has been a huge matter in this discourse. It is because

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this party In a very short time, AFD has risen up to be one of the most famous and popular
political parties being founded newly after the 1950s (Melnyk 2017). This party began to
establish sub-national structures in many parts of the country and this evidently proved to be one
of the biggest elements for success of this party. This is why this party has been able to utilize on
all the opportunities they have got to influence the voters. However, they have been very much
aggressive and their strategies have only targeted to influence the voters through various means.
The first context of media use by German AFD Party is thus a very crucial matter in the success
of the country (Barberá 2014). Their networks are very strong and they will look to make it very
clear that they wanted to reach to the people and persuade them to vote for them. Their main
agenda was other parties were helping these immigrant and ethnic minority people. Therefore,
they persuaded the common people if they were elected in the parliament, they would surely
wipe out the fear and threats of the common people from those immigrants. This is why it has
surely become an integral factor indeed (Barberá 2014). Some critics have raised many questions
regarding the ideological character of this party. They have not followed any particular path of
ideology to impress the voters. Their approach has always been rational and they have been
guarded by media (Rohrschneider and Whitefield 2017). One thing must be said in this context
that this party has been facing some issues and scandals in connecting with people and
demanding for their votes.
The two contexts of AFD party for election success
The central co-leaders of this party are Jorg Meuthen and Alexander Gauland. Their
approach to election has always been a sense of impressing the voters in whatever way possible.
The party had claimed 94 seats in the Bundestag and they rose to prominence in this manner.
They are a right wing populist and their lack of ideology has led them to be questioned by the

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other parties (Barberá 2014). One of the things that could be highlighted in this discourse is the
running of advertisements in the country showing their Islamophobia. This is marked as a
provocative ad campaign before the German national elections. They have blended the two
elements like Islamphobia and misogyny because they wanted to focus on their anti-immigrant
stance and boycott Muslim people from the country (Stier et al. 2018).
The ad campaign has been further developed by the mass media. Therefore, this ad
campaign has reached the house of common people so they could be persuaded in believing that
as well. In the summer, the ad released by the party showed two women from behind wearing
bikinis. Under the ad, it was written “Burkas? We prefer bikinis?”. The party leaders are very
much aware that Muslims do not like this kind of western culture of wearing bikinis (Stier et al.
2018). So, they clearly said that they are against these Muslim immigrants and they want to stick
on their culture. This has made the traditional and conservative people of the country very happy.
However, the critics have argued on this issue that this factor will wipe off the need for diversity
within the country (Haßler, Maurer and Oschatz 2014).
The cultural factors should be highlighted in this factor as well. Since the beginning of
the 1980s, the shift has been noticed regarding the right wing movements. The shifts have been
there in the fashion, lifestyle, myths and other things. Therefore, it has become a very handy
issue indeed (Haßler, Maurer and Oschatz 2014). The youth culture of the country has been
shaped by rightist beliefs. Therefore, media has been able to influence these young people to be
persuaded by the approach of AFD party through their news coverage. In the Federal Republic of
Germany, there have been some limitations and opportunities regarding the beliefs and values of
the AFD party (Childs and Johnson 2014). So, media has gone on to play a huge part in this. The

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journalists have presented the news in a manner that common people would apprehend the fear
of the immigrants and people belonging to ethnic minority (Rohrschneider and Whitefield 2017).
Use of social media by AFD party
The political party in discussion in Germany, Alternative for Deutschland (AFD) has
been able to manipulate the social media platforms largely in this era. They have showed that
they could earn the faith and trust of the young people because they are the main users of the
social media platforms like Facebook, twitter, instagram and others. They are present in twitter
more than any other German party (Childs and Johnson 2014). So, their popularity has spread
largely across the youth in the country. The party has been present in twitter even more than non-
partisan discussion over the 2017 general elections (Berning 2017). Therefore, they have run
their electoral campaigns in a manner that it would suit the demands of new voters. The vocal
presence of AFD in social media has given them an edge over other parties. As confirmed by the
sources, they are present in the online social media around 30.1% (Huberty 2015). This is far
ahead than their rivals CDU/ CSU. One of their main strengths in the political sphere is the fact
they are very active and their communication strategy is very smooth. If they can communicate
their values and beliefs to the people on a regular basis and get feedbacks from them, common
people should always revert back (Huberty 2015). This social media strategy of AFD political
party has given them a strong competitive advantage over others.
The AFD is regarded as the most successful rightwing populist party in Germany after
the Second World War. They have stated their vision to their target audience through social
media. Their vision statement is “the self-preservation not the self-destruction of our state and
our people” (Afd.de, 2019). The people believe that they will work for them and raise their voice

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so people could attain their rights (Ramteke et al. 2016). Their commitment towards
communication with the voters is exemplary. They have viewed this as an opportunity to connect
with all the voters. They want the close all the German borders because it could prove a big
threat towards the sovereignty of their state (Arzheimer 2015). A recent example can be shown is
that of Syrian migrants coming to Greece and Germany for aids. Their opinion was these
migrants could cause chaos in the democracy and sovereignty of the country. They believed that
they will get more than 50% of seats in the 2017. It was their firm belief since a section of native
Germans also believed in this. AFD party was able to gain their trust in a big time (Arzheimer
2015).
Some critics have opined that this will be one of the biggest challenges for the other
parties of the country. According to them, the fate of the rightwing populist movement was only
some kind of a temporary gush of wind that swept away the opinion of the voters. So, it was not
that much important to be highly concerned of. On the other hand, the electoral strategy of the
Left party (Die Linke) was concerned about the dichotomy between the common people and elite
people of the society (Arzheimer 2015). So, it is quite possible that people would surely
understand their mistakes and not get deviated by the promises of the AFD party leaders. The
issue of immigration has been dealt by AFD party in a very clever manner (Berning 2017).
So, this will be a huge challenge for other parties to convince people that the viewpoints
showed by AFD party are not strong enough to protect them. They should have also asked them
to focus on the issue that it will make them divided into different groups. The discourse of
humanity had been misused by the AFD party as they ignored the well being of the people
belonging to the ethnic minority (Kim 2017). However, they have not showed any sign of giving
importance to the issues like education, development in health affairs and others. Therefore, the

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welfare of the migrants had been completely ignored in this matter. Their approach to close the
borders of Germany could prove to be ill-fated one day. However, their emergence through the
use of social media will remain to be one of the greatest achievements despite its several
drawbacks (Kim 2017).
Conclusion
On a concluding note, it can be said that use of social media has been one of the most
effective factors for the popularizing of the political parties in Germany. The AFD party has
come up in the recent years as a growing political party to get more than 90 seats in the
Bundestag. Therefore, the ways the party has used the social media and other media strategies is
an example for others. They have made the impossible possible through their efforts and
engagement with the social media. This is why they will require making the changes by
communicating with the voters (mostly young ones) to attain their trust and faith. This way their
rise as a political party and gaining a place in the Bundestag will remain as a commendable
work. However, their aggressive strategies and approaches have been criticized over and over
again. Finally, it must be said the role of mass media and social media in the rise of AFD party is
immense and worth of being remembered.

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