Browsing by Author "Masalha, Oday"

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    Master Thesis
    An Analysis of Social Media Content Shared by Right-Wing Extremist Groups in the United States, the Great Britain and Australia
    (Kadir Has Üniversitesi, 2020) Masalha, Oday; Baş, Özen
    Literature on extremism online is mostly focused on the activities of jihadist and extremist groups such as al-Qaeda and ISIS. There is also research related to extreme right activities on social media, however their focus is on the analysis of shared memes and examination of populism on the Internet. With the New Zealand attack, the El Paso incident, and Britain's exit from the European Union, extreme right movements have emerged strongly on the Internet, especially on Facebook and Twitter. This thesis attempts to understand how extreme right groups are using Facebook and Twitter platforms to advance their extremist ideologies. In order to do so, a qualitative content analysis of posts shared by public Facebook groups and Twitter accounts of extreme right groups in Britain, the United States and Australia has been conducted. The social media posts shared by extreme right groups in the US, Australia and the Great Britain on Facebook and Twitter between the dates of March 15, 2019 to February 5, 2020 were coded according to a coding instrument. The coding instrument consisted of categories and subcategories which were derived from existing studies in the field and examined the prevalence of the extremist ideologies present in the social media posts shared by these groups and accounts. Findings suggest that the most prevalent extremist ideologies present in the posts shared by extremist groups on Facebook and Twitter were anti-elitist populist and protection of western values. Also, extremist groups rely heavily on texts and photo combined to publish their ideologies, with the aim of reaching a wide audience through the getting high number of likes and comments.
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    Article
    Citation Count: 1
    An analysis of social media content shared by right-wing extremist groups in the United States, the Great Britain and Australia
    (Istanbul Univ, Fac Communication, 2023) Masalha, Oday; Bas, Ozen
    The extreme right movements have increasingly appeared on social media, especially on Twitter and Facebook, coinciding with the 2019 New Zealand attack, the 2019 El Paso incident, and Britain's exit from the European Union in 2020. This study examines the content and the form of extreme right-wing activities on Facebook and Twitter to promote their ideologies. A qualitative content analysis was conducted on posts shared by extreme-right groups on public Facebook and Twitter accounts in Great Britain, the United States and Australia. The sample spans from March 15, 2019 to February 5, 2020. The posts were coded according to a coding instrument developed based on the existing literature spreading extremist ideologies on social media. The coding instrument consisted of categories and subcategories such as 'the protection of western values', 'anti-LGBT activism', 'anti-feminism', 'anti-Islam', 'anti-immigrant sentiments', 'fostering the white race', and 'anti-elitist populism'. Findings suggest that the most prevalent extremist ideologies on Facebook and Twitter posts were 'anti-elitist populism' and 'the protection of western values'. Also, extremist groups heavily shared posts that combined texts and images to spread their ideologies on social media.