Digital Populism in Italy: Online Discourses on Islam and Migration

In recent years, social media platforms have become central spaces for the production and circulation of political and cultural discourses, profoundly influencing public debate and the construction of collective identities. Within the European context, these dynamics have increasingly focused on representations of Islam and Muslim migrants, which are often framed in simplified, oppositional, and stereotypical ways. Islam tends to be depicted as monolithic, patriarchal, and incompatible with Western cultural values, thereby functioning as a symbolic counterpart through which national and cultural identities are defined and defended. This paper examines how populist discourses surrounding Islam, particularly in relation to migration, are articulated and reproduced on Italian social media by analyzing posts on Instagram and YouTube published by prominent political actors from both the Italian right and left wings who actively shape public discourses about Islam. By focusing on how these posts frame Islam as a religious and cultural issue closely tied to debates on migration, the study investigates how such content contributes to the circulation, negotiation, and normalization of exclusionary discourses related to religion and national identity. Methodologically, the research adopts a Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA) approach (Machin, 2013) combined with digital ethnography (Kozinets, 2020). An initial netnographic observation identified social media profiles in which Islam and migration issues recurrently appear within political and cultural discussions. MCDA provides a framework for a contextual understanding of digital environments, examining multimodal elements of posts—text, images, and videos—and the discursive strategies that shape meaning. This approach also allows for an analysis of how Islam is constructed as an ideological “other” and mobilised to legitimise political positions, particularly in relation to migration. The study is theoretically grounded in Hjarvard’s (2008) concept of the mediatisation of religion, particularly the notion of “banal religion,” which explains how media simplify and circulate religious ideas within everyday communication. At the same time, it draws on Moffitt’s (2016) relational-performative approach to populism, which defines populism not simply as an ideology, but as a political style enacted through performance, built on emotional, polarising, and discursive strategies. In conclusion, by integrating these methodological and theoretical perspectives, the research aims to shed light on how digital spaces contribute to shaping public perceptions of Islam and migration, revealing the mechanisms through which populist discourses become normalised and embedded within contemporary Italian online communication.