In this seminar, Professor Finlayson's primary proposition is that digital media platforms are important drivers of profound changes to contemporary political culture. Not only because they enable new, disparate, or extreme voices to enter public debate but also because they change the rhetorical and aesthetic forms through which political ideas are articulated, received and experienced.

To develop this proposition Professor Finlayson will consider, firstly, the concept of ‘populist style’ and its relation to ‘mediatisation’ showing how performances of political character (what rhetoricians call ethos) have become central to populist discourse and ideology. Secondly, a discussion of how digital, shareable and participatory media is giving rise to new ways in which such character is performed, developing this point with consideration of one particular platform: YouTube.

To explore this in detail, the seminar will look at an exemplary case-study, the British-based YouTuber, political agitator and ideologue Paul Joseph Watson. The seminar will show how his ideology and rhetoric are centred on a particular performance of ‘truth-teller’, one who can interpret and make visible hidden realities, and a promise of ‘healing’ for those who assent to his truth claims.

About the speaker

Alan Finlayson is Professor of Political & Social Theory at the University of East Anglia in Norwich. He is currently Principal Investigator on the Art and Humanities Research Council funded project Political Ideology, Aesthetics and Rhetoric in the Digital Age: The Case of the “Alt-Right”.

This seminar is part of the Department of Politics, Languages & International Studies staff and postgraduate research student seminar series.