Latest Publications
Far-right Fictions: The Far Right and the Politics of Films, Series and Videogames
Benjamin De Cleen, Omran Shroufi, Joke Bauwens & Kevin Smets
October 2025
Link: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjav20/32/3
Special Issue: Far-right Fictions: The Far Right and the Politics of Films, Series and Videogames
Journal: Javnost - The Public
Abstract
With audiovisual fiction still largely overlooked in recent literature on the far right, this article turns its attention to research dedicated to the intersections between the far right and films, television series and video games. Based on a mapping review, we first identify main trends in existing literature, finding that it is mainly focused on (1) history and memory, (2) far-right regimes, and (3) film, and is (4) largely based in humanities approaches. Building on this and on recent developments in the literature, we then propose four ways forward to ensure that future research on the far right and audiovisual fiction is more attuned to (1) the contemporary far right, (2) the heterogeneity that characterises the far right today, (3) the significance of series and games as additionally important forms audiovisual fiction and, (4) the specificities and complexities of far-engagement with audiovisual fiction in a digital context.
The issue is an outcome of the Far Right Fictions project (VUB SRP93) and was edited by Benjamin De Cleen, Omran Shroufi, Joke Bauwens, and Kevin Smets. It includes an introductory article by Benjamin De Cleen, Omran Shroufi, Willem Joris, Joke Bauwens and Kevin Smets, and individual articles by ECHO researchers Briar Dickey and Omran Shroufi.
The entire special issue can be found here: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjav20/32/3
Table of contents
Far-right Fictions: The Far Right and the Politics of Films, Series and Videogames
Edited by Benjamin De Cleen, Omran Shroufi, Joke Bauwens & Kevin Smets
https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjav20/32/3
Fictional Frontlines: A Mapping Review and Research Agenda for the Study of Far-right Engagement with Films, Television and Video Games
Benjamin De Cleen, Joke Bauwens, Willem Joris, Omran Shroufi & Kevin Smets
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13183222.2025.2547519
The Extreme Right at the Movies: Fiction, Affect and Film Reviews
Christoffer Kølvraa
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13183222.2025.2547520
Disney Professor: Jordan Peterson’s Media Commentary as Far-right Mythopoesis
Catherine Tebaldi
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13183222.2025.2547521
Critiquing Audiovisual Fiction from the New Right: The German Far-right Podcast “Von Rechts Gelesen”
Omran Shroufi
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13183222.2025.2547522
Respawning the Hero: Metapolitics, Historical Fiction Video Games and the Shifting Strategies and Subjectivities of Far-right Influencers
Briar Dickey
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13183222.2025.2547523
If it Ain’t Woke, Don’t Fix It: The Revanchism of Bad Object (Anti)-fans
Max Dosser
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13183222.2025.2547524
The “Right” Atmosphere: Audiovisual Material and the Far Right
Bernhard Forchtner
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13183222.2025.2547525
The social resonance of environmental media messages: a connectionist-inspired reception analysis
Pascal Verhoest, Joke Bauwens, Petrus te Braak & Marijke Huysmans
June 2025
Link: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-05243-7
Journal: Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
Publisher: Nature
Abstract
This study examines the reasons why certain environmental messages are received negatively by some social groups and not by others. In particular, the study provides insights into the influence of fear appeals in environmental communication and explores how communication strategies can be optimised to encourage environmentally friendly behaviour. In contrast to many studies that adopt a linear perspective on media effects, this study analyses the reception of environmental information as an interaction between media representations and the socially situated cognitive representations of reality stored in recipients’ memories. To operationalise this approach, a method of reception analysis is proposed that combines thought elicitation, semantic coding and multiple correspondence analysis (MCA). This method was used to assess the cognitive resonance of a minimal information condition and three differently framed newspaper-like articles on wastewater reuse in agriculture, which were randomly assigned to four panels with a total of 1040 participants. The results indicate that, independent of framing effects, these articles evoke different interpretations depending on the interplay between the media frames presented and the prior cognitive representations of different groups.