Diskursangebote und Anschlussdiskurse

Using the 2013 national election as an example, this study analyses the typical content and argumentation used in online campaigning by small German political parties as well as in their follow-up discussions. The analysis integrates thoughts from discourse studies and election studies. Based on two laboriously qualitative-typological content analyses, the posts and comments on the Facebook pages of the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), Alliance 90/The Greens (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen), the Left Party (Die Linke), the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD), the Pirate Party (Piratenpartei) and Alternative for Germany (AfD) were analysed. The author critiques the typical discourse and argumentation patterns extracted with reference to a democratic (online) public. The results indicate that neither what the small parties offer nor the users’ discussions fulfil the requirements of a normative, supportive democracy’s ideal of discourse. The findings do not only contribute to the science of communication, but may also be interesting for political scientists and sociologists.