WP288 Post-digital communication: Chronotopic worlds in Trump’s discourse on migration

De Fina & Wegner
2021

Abstract

In this article we analyze Trump’s discourse on migration based on a study of 915 tweets collected from Trump’s Twitter account (@realDonaldTrump) covering a period between 01/25/2015 and 09/26/2019. We align with recent theorizations about political communication in what has been called the post-digital era by underlining the pivotal role of social media in delivering political messages. However, we also argue that what makes Trump’s political messages particularly powerful is the ability to construct a coherent narrative through chronotopic frames. We show how different forms of intertextuality play a central role in the creation and dissemination of two versions of a chronotope of war and conflict through constant repetition of words, verbal sequences and images across tweets and with the insertion of hyperlink to far right propaganda across media.