The project on “Constructing Islam on Social Media: Populist Discourses about Islam in Italy” aims to analyse populist discourses disseminated on YouTube by both right-wing and left-wing Italian actors, with a specific focus on the national context. The investigation will concentrate on Islamophobic content, including hate speech, extremist rhetoric, and discriminatory narratives targeting Islam. Furthermore, forms of radicalised islamist discourse will be studied with the aim of comparison. A cross-cutting focus of the analysis will address gender issues, with particular attention to media representations of muslim migrant women. The research will explore how these subjects are constructed, framed, or marginalised within populist and islamophobic narratives.

The project is part of the DEMINE project (“DEaling with conflicts related to MIgration: NEgotiating social cohesion through communication”), which aims to explore how different forms of communication influence individual attitudes and beliefs about migration. The project focuses on the role of communication in shaping intergroup relations and social cohesion, particularly within the context of political polarisation, societal tensions, and processes of radicalisation, with special attention to migration-related issues. See https://demine.eu.

Miriam Jawadi is an Italo-Moroccan PhD student in the Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics. She holds a Bachelor's degree in International Political Science and a Master's degree in Sociology from the University of Turin.