Editorial | Open Access
European Elections in Times of (Poly)Crises: Populism, Polarization, Emotions, and the Deliberative Disintegration
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Abstract: This thematic issue of Media and Communication examines how the 2024 European Parliament elections reflect broader transformations of political communication in the digital age. Contributions show how infrastructures of manipulation, emotional and visual repertoires, and algorithmic logics amplify populism, disinformation, and polarization, while weakening deliberation. Analyses of youth orientations, electoral arenas, and media systems reveal how negativity and symbolic performance increasingly outweigh substantive dialogue. Comparative perspectives highlight the global scope of these dynamics. Collectively, the studies point toward a process of “deliberative disintegration,” signaling democratic vulnerabilities and the urgent need to foster resilience.
Keywords: affective polarization; electoral communication; European elections; deliberative disintegration; digital populism; polarization; political communication; populism; social media
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© Adriana Ștefănel, Maria Romana Allegri. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction of the work without further permission provided the original author(s) and source are credited.