The digital performativity of populism: the politics of charisma, ordinariness, and spectacle

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From the four objectives I outlined in the previous section, conducting new research will be the backbone of my postdoctoral fellowship, not only because it is the most exciting part of being an academic, but also because it is instrumental to the achievement of the other objectives. This new research will provide fertile ground, through its 'fresh' and widely 'appealing' case studies (of topical interest to many Western audiences), for producing empirically and analytically insightful publications, drawing attention to my research as a whole while stressing its 'here-and-now' contributions, and developing-strengthening my analytical skills. The questions that the proposed research project, 'the digital performativity of populism: the politics of charisma, ordinariness, and spectacle', poses are the very same questions lying at the heart of my doctoral research. How is politico-ideological meaning produced and reproduced, or contested, through mediatic political performances - these patterns of presentation and self-presentation, such as the 'charismatic' leader, the 'ordinary' celebrity, and the 'spectacular' rally/demonstration, which involve the use of communication media, or put it better, in which the use of media communications is deeply embedded? How does this 'mediatized' politico-ideological meaning invite us to think about and act within the society we live? Back in late 2013, when I started my PhD, these questions were still overshadowed by a 'liberal-centrist consensus' which wanted politics a largely rational and managerial business, where the aesthetic-affective and politico-ideological appeals of performative discourse were like an idiosyncrasy of some populist caricatures, like Berlusconi, and some marginal extreme parties, like the Tea Party. Arguably, today that neither populism is confined to just a few exceptional figures nor extreme/far-right-and-left voices are marginal anymore, the above questions seem to be more pertinent than ever before, and therefore they need to be brought back to the centre of political inquiry, sociological research, and communication studies. The proposed project seeks to do so by focusing on some case studies which exemplify, and at the same time problematise, the current 'populist turn' in Western politics, such as the charismatic performances of Donald Trump and Justin Trudeau, the ordinary performances of Jeremy Corbyn (Glastonbury festival) and Oprah Winfrey (Golden Globes), and the spectacular performances of Brexit and Greek anti-austerity rallies. All these are, as I wish to argue, not single and unique political performances, but manifestations of an institutionally and historically embedded repertoire of political performances - an institutional media performativity - and as such they carry with them practices of media use (e.g. Trump's-Trudeau's Twitter-mania, social media paroxysm with Corbyn's and Winfrey's speeches, and extensive remediation of footage from Brexit and anti-austerity rallies) and symbolic practices of agency and ordering (e.g. a mission of national palingenesis or change, an everyday life of moral resistance, and an imaginary of belonging, respectively). This project will reflect on both the 'mediatic' and 'symbolic' dynamics of political performances by analysing their specific techno-semiotic articulations in the social media platforms by means of which they are mediated and remediated - their digital intertextuality. In doing so, it will also be able to reflect on the politico-ideological nature of contemporary populisms: on how the various digital performances aesthetically and affectively recall symbols of 'the people', radical and progressive or reactionary and conservative, and ultimately on the implications they bear for the future of democracy.