The kids are alt-right: an introduction to PragerU and its role in radicalization in the United States

IF 0.5 2区社会学 Q4 ETHNIC STUDIES

Patterns of Prejudice Pub Date : 2022-05-27 DOI:10.1080/0031322X.2023.2219167

R. Dickinson, Tom Cowin

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引用次数: 1

Abstract

ABSTRACT With an annual budget of nearly fifty million dollars and over five billion views on social media, PragerU is a central node in the production of misinformation and radicalization in the United States today. Despite this, it has received little-to-no attention in contemporary scholarship. This paper begins to correct this dangerous oversight by introducing PragerU to an academic audience as a powerful far-right institution. We build on Rebecca Lewis’s concept of the Alternative Influence Network to show that PragerU is a unique and sinister institution with the ability to draw together disparate parts of the American right, using immense financial resources and advertising reach to do so. At its core, we contend that PragerU functions as a legitimizing hub for the US far right. It creates for itself a veneer of legitimacy as a seemingly moderate, centrist educational organization, even appropriating the term ‘university’. PragerU then shares that legitimacy, serving as a hub that unites the right, bringing together Reaganite neoliberals, Bush-era neoconservatives, Tea Partiers, Trumpists and the contemporary alt-right under PragerU branding. Combined with its staggering reach and the structural features of social media platforms (‘suggested videos’, recommendations), PragerU acts as a gateway to the extreme right, and the first steps on the path to radicalization. As a result, we argue that it can no longer be ignored by scholars seeking to understand the far right in the United States, and should be treated as an essential area of study into right-wing radicalization and the spread of misinformation on social media today.

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孩子们是另类右派:介绍PragerU及其在美国激进化中的作用

PragerU的年度预算接近5000万美元，在社交媒体上的浏览量超过50亿，是当今美国制造错误信息和激进化的中心节点。尽管如此，它在当代学术界几乎没有受到关注。本文通过向学术界介绍PragerU作为一个强大的极右翼机构，开始纠正这一危险的疏忽。我们以丽贝卡·刘易斯(Rebecca Lewis)的另类影响网络概念为基础，表明PragerU是一个独特而邪恶的机构，它有能力利用巨大的财政资源和广告影响力，将美国右翼的不同部分聚集在一起。在其核心，我们认为PragerU是美国极右翼的合法中心。它为自己创造了一个看似温和、中立的教育组织的合法性表象，甚至挪用了“大学”这个词。然后，PragerU分享了这种合法性，成为团结右翼的中心，将里根时代的新自由主义者、布什时代的新保守主义者、茶党、特朗普主义者和当代另类右翼聚集在PragerU的品牌下。结合其惊人的覆盖范围和社交媒体平台的结构特征(“建议视频”，推荐)，PragerU充当了通往极右翼的门户，也是走向激进化的第一步。因此，我们认为，寻求了解美国极右翼的学者不能再忽视它，它应该被视为研究右翼激进化和当今社交媒体上错误信息传播的一个重要领域。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Patterns of Prejudice Multiple-

CiteScore

2.50

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Patterns of Prejudice provides a forum for exploring the historical roots and contemporary varieties of social exclusion and the demonization or stigmatisation of the Other. It probes the language and construction of "race", nation, colour, and ethnicity, as well as the linkages between these categories. It encourages discussion of issues at the top of the public policy agenda, such as asylum, immigration, hate crimes and citizenship. As none of these issues are confined to any one region, Patterns of Prejudice maintains a global optic, at the same time as scrutinizing intensely the history and development of intolerance and chauvinism in the United States and Europe, both East and West.