Observing the Observers : From Media Pluralism to anti-Islamic Populism: Analysis of a Swiss “reinformation” Website and its Connections

Résumé 0

Among the changes currently underway on the European political scene, one of the most noteworthy phenomena concerns the upsurge of populist websites. Under the pretext of invisibility of radical right-wing opinions in the media, these websites set out to “reinform” citizens, whom they consider to be disinformed by “left-wing politically correct thinking”. This article describes the origins and development of one of these websites, www.lesobservateurs.ch, founded in February 2012 in Switzerland by a retired sociology professor. By examining its connections and collaboration with French websites of the same persuasion, it highlights a circular circulation of information. This phenomenon is shown to contribute to the emergence of a transnational reinfo-sphere by expanding the audiences of populist arguments on the Web. The authors thus empirically scrutinize the ideological and technical changes in political communication, for which Internet has become one of the main media.