The Czech Singers Critical of Islam and Refugees on Facebook in the Age of the “Migration Crisis” (2015–2017)

Abstract

The article analyses through qualitative textual analysis and manual coding Czech singers known for their critical attitudes to the “migration crisis”as presented on their Facebook walls (2015–2017). This major focus on the singer’s Facebook posts was reinforced by the analysis based on the two theoretical concepts – celebritisation of politics and post-truth politics. In sum, analyses across theoretical approaches found that a majority of singers – although not all of them – have been judging the problem through the lenses of a black -and -white “Clash of Civilizational” approach. Only a few singers run for political office and political agenda-setting linked to the “migration crisis” was not frequented as expected. Many of the investigated singers expressed support or political endorsement to xenophobic and anti-islamic political parties. Although the “Russian footage” could be denied, the style and characters of communication via Facebook revealed that in many aspects the singers’ strategy is in consonance with current Kremlin propaganda.

Keywords

• singers
• migration crisis
• refugees, islam, facebook
• celebritization of politics
• post-truth era