The far Right of the UK and Ukraine's Views About European Integration: An Analysis of Online Political Discourse

This study is an example of interdisciplinary research, which combines the linguistic aspects with the study of public political discourse in social media. This research provides an analysis of far right political discourse in social media (Facebook and Twitter) on European integration. We collect data from the official accounts of British National Party (BNP) and Ukrainian far right parties and movements: Freedom Party (Svoboda), Radical Party and Right Sector (Pravyi Sektor). The authors hypothesize the existence of two divergent discourses which characterize the European integration in social media in different ways. The authors propose an analysis technique that is most appropriate for discourse analysis in political studies. The technique involves two levels of discourse analysis: identifying key conceptual metaphors in both alleged discourses (positively or negatively characterizing the aspects of European integration) and the identification of semantic opposition "us-them", implemented within the framework of metaphors. On the basis of this approach to textual analysis we can identify the metaphorical images of European integration, the concepts used, and, subsequently, the conceptual metaphors they create. We conclude the research hypothesis was confirmed. The views of the BNP on European integration are definitely negative, while the views of the Ukrainian far right parties and movements can be called, to some extent, positive for the most aspects of European integration.