Segmenting the Audiences? Varieties in Issues and Tonality in Alt-Right Broadcasting Targeting Different Demographic Groups

With the emergence of streaming television and on-demand podcasts, the alt-right media has garnered a new and expanding branch in many countries where partisan television or radio would otherwise have been unthinkable either for legal or financial reasons. This paper aims to explore whether alt-right broadcasting is geared toward homogenising its audiences or whether it offers representation to the distinct interests of the varied groups the shows appear to address. Empirically, this pilot study draws on three shows streaming in the Uued Uudised taskuhääling podcast service and also on UUTV, the streaming television service by the Estonian populist radical right-wing party EKRE. We will analyse three shows over the period of two years, which is when all three shows have been running: an all-female show "Elust ja poliitikast" [Of Life and Politics], the show "Põhjatäht" [The North Star] featuring EKRE’s youth branch The Blue Awakening, and the radio show "Räägime asjast" [Let’s Talk Business] featuring the party’s leaders Mart and Martin Helme discussing current affairs, which represents the mainstream communication style of the party in the analysis. Using text- as- data methods on the shows’ transcripts, we will explore the thematic and tonality differences across the three shows. The analysis suggests that while there are clear differences in tonality between the shows, the issue make-up of the shows is not that distinct (especially between the party’s mainstream and all-female shows), suggesting that EKRE is using its streaming services rather for voter maximisation than special representation.