Dr. Jiun-chi Lin gave a lecture about populist communication on Facebook in Taiwan, 15 June 2023

On June 15th Dr. Jiun-Chi Lin presented a part of his research about populist communication on social networking sites in Taiwan, which indicates that mainstream parties per se tend to adopt more moderate populist frameworks on Facebook. While stylistic devices are positively associated with populist communication, mainstream parties tend to present populist frameworks in negative and emotional styles. While online user engagement is partially associated with populist communication, higher online engagement does not intensify mainstream parties’ degrees of using populist frameworks on Facebook. The participants came from different departments and research fields and thus provided a foundation for a vivid discussion from different perspectives.

 Jiun-Chi Lin (PhD, 2022) received his doctor diplomas from National Sun Yat-sen University (Taiwan) and KU Leuven (Belgium). He was trained by fields of political science and media studies which encouraged him to delve into political communication research. With mixed methods, his dissertation compares populist communication patterns of political agents on Facebook during national elections in Taiwan and Germany. Currently, his research is 1) exploring roles of social media influencers on shaping individual political attitudes, and 2) examining effects of campaign messages on attitudinal changes.