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

从我在上一节中概述的四个目标来看，开展新的研究将是我博士后研究的支柱，不仅因为这是作为一名学者最令人兴奋的部分，而且还因为它有助于实现其他目标。这项新的研究将通过其“新鲜的”和广泛的“有吸引力的”案例研究(许多西方受众感兴趣的话题)，为出版经验性和分析性的有洞察力的出版物提供肥沃的土壤，在强调其“此时此刻”贡献的同时，引起人们对我整个研究的关注，并发展-加强我的分析技能。这项名为《民粹主义的数字表演性：魅力、平凡和壮观的政治》的研究项目提出的问题，正是我博士研究的核心问题。政治意识形态的意义是如何通过媒介的政治表演来产生和复制的，或者是有争议的--这些展示和自我展示的模式，如“有魅力的”领导人、“普通”的名人和“壮观的”集会/示威，涉及到传播媒体的使用，或者更确切地说，是深深地嵌入了媒体传播的使用中？这种“调停”的政治意识形态意义如何邀请我们在我们所生活的社会中思考和行动？早在2013年末，当我开始攻读博士学位时，这些问题仍然笼罩在“自由-中间派共识”的阴影之下，他们希望政治在很大程度上是一种理性和管理的业务，表演性话语的审美情感和政治意识形态诉求就像是贝卢斯科尼等民粹主义漫画和茶党等边缘极端政党的特质。可以说，在民粹主义既不局限于少数特殊人物，也不再局限于极端/极右翼和左翼声音的今天，上述问题似乎比以往任何时候都更相关，因此它们需要回到政治调查、社会学研究和传播学研究的中心。这个拟议的项目旨在通过关注一些案例研究来实现这一点，这些案例既是西方政治中当前民粹主义转向的例证，也是问题的根源，例如唐纳德·特朗普和贾斯汀·特鲁多富有魅力的表演，杰里米·科尔宾(格拉斯顿伯里音乐节)和奥普拉·温弗瑞(金球奖)的普通表演，以及英国退欧和希腊反紧缩集会的壮观表演。正如我想说的那样，所有这些都不是单一而独特的政治表演，而是一种制度和历史上根深蒂固的政治表演--制度媒体表现力--的表现，因此它们携带着媒体使用的做法(例如，特朗普-特鲁多的推特狂热，社交媒体对科尔宾和温弗瑞演讲的爆发，以及对英国退欧和反紧缩集会镜头的广泛补救)，以及机构和秩序的象征性做法(例如，分别是国家重生或变革的使命，道德抵抗的日常生活，以及虚构的归属感)。这个项目将通过分析政治表演在社交媒体平台上的特定技术符号表达来反映政治表演的“媒介”和“象征”动态--通过社交媒体平台进行调解和补救--他们的数字互文性。通过这样做，它还将能够反思当代民粹主义的政治意识形态性质：各种数字表演如何在审美上和情感上回忆起激进和进步或反动和保守的人民的象征，并最终反思它们对民主未来的影响。

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.