“Absolutely ridiculous”: Strategy and content of hidden negative campaigning in the 2017 French presidential election

Résumé 0

In the 2017 French presidential campaign, Ridicule TV appeared to be a humorous project about politics on social media (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube), publishing around 60 short videos. In reality, it was a tool used for hidden negative campaigning against the centrist free-market candidate Emmanuel Macron, designed and managed by members of the right-wing François Fillon campaign. We discuss why this cover-up limited Ridicule TV’s ability to improve electoral results while adapting to contextual constraints. In order to explain the apparent paradox between the ends and means of this negativity, our article combines theoretical and empirical study through an approach combining the sociology of political communication and the strategic analysis of communication. We then conduct a content analysis of the videos in terms of narrative analysis and discursive processes, with special regard to the differences between mockery and criticism, in order to assess to what extent the discourse is consistent with the project. We show that the staff of Ridicule TV relied to a great extent on political sourcing and narrative politicization, and prioritized the strategic goal of criticizing the opponent over the strategic goal of hiding the real purpose of Ridicule TV.