Francesco Vittonetto

Such an interesting piece of research by @ammassarisofia.bsky.social just out in @cpsjournal.bsky.social ✨

So lucky to work with such a brilliant and generous scholar every day, brava!!

Our book is out and available to read open access online: academic.oup.com/book/60532. It is dedicated to Niko.

... And an update: the guy went out for a walk in the sun.

This beautiful python was right outside my office at @griffith.edu.au. Reviewer 2, it seems, wanted to supervise that new draft a little more closely.

"Youth Wings of the Populist Radical Right", now under contract with Oxford University Press.

We've already got a full draft and the reviews were really positive, so this should be out in 2026!

@ammassarisofia.bsky.social; @casmudde.bsky.social; @arjupskas.bsky.social

Far‐Right Illiberalism in the European Parliament | Article | Politics and Governance Larissa Böckmann, Sarah L. de Lange, Nathalie Brack, Matthijs Rooduijn

Very excited to share this publication in Politics & Governance together with @sldelange.bsky.social @nathaliebrack.bsky.social @mrooduijn.bsky.social
We study the embrace of illiberalism in far-right discourse in the European Parliament between 1999 and 2019
www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandg...

AI is moving fast. Climate policy provides valuable lessons for how to keep it in check Existing efforts to regulate AI share a limitation: they’re built around intended use, not the messy, creative and often unintended ways it is actually being used.

🚨 New research! With Milly Stilinovic & @dhutchman.bsky.social, we explore how AI is being creatively misused in experimental online spaces we call Underspheres — and why current regulation can’t keep up.

New Media & Society
doi.org/10.1177/1461...

Conversation
theconversation.com/ai-is-moving...

Vacancy — PhD Position "Visual Politics and the Emergence of Angry Publics" Are you curious about how images, videos, and memes transform political communication? Are you passionate about digital technology and the future of democracy? Then apply for this PhD project focused ...

🚨 PhD position in Political Communication at @ascor.bsky.social 🚨

Come work with @ulrikeklinger.bsky.social @lindabos.bsky.social and myself on a 4-year project about visual communication & political anger

DL June 4 - Thanks to repost for diversity! 🔥

@polcomm.bsky.social

➡️ tinyurl.com/8yvbkwxu

It was great to present my work in today’s department seminar! Big thanks to @duncanmcdonnell.com, Ferran, and @ammassarisofia.bsky.social for the constant support – and to the big crowd of PhD friends and staff colleagues attending

Mornings - ABC listen You'll get a deeper insight into the issues that matter each morning.

I had a great long chat earlier this morning with Steve Austin on ABC about Gen-Z voting, how parties seek to engage with young people, and much else besides! (including my Gen-Z daughter's view of youth wings...)

From around 1:43 here:

www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

47% of Gen Z mainly vote to avoid a fine. It’s a sign of younger Australians’ discontent with democracy With Gen Z and Millennials combined now outnumbering Baby Boomers as the dominant voter bloc, their votes will shape the election. But do they care?

In today's @theconversation.com, @duncanmcdonnell.bsky.social, Ferran Martinez i Coma and I write about Gen-Z turnout in Australia:

theconversation.com/47-of-gen-z-...

A short thread on our main takeaways, based on our survey of over 1,300 Gen-Z Australians:

CALL FOR PAPERS

Our annual APSA Political Organisations and Participation
@popgroupaus.bsky.social research group workshop is being held 5-6 June at the Uni of Canberra.

Limited financial support available for ECRs and HDRs travelling from outside Canberra.

Short abstracts due 7 April.

This week, The Australian ran a story all about our recent EJPR article on radicals, moderates, and aligned members of party youth wings.

You can read it here:

www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/progr...

Preventing and countering violent extremism: the logics of women’s participation Women’s participation in preventing and countering extremist violence is increasingly prioritised in international, regional and national policies on Preventing/Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE)...

I'm thrilled to share my open-access paper published in @austjia.bsky.social!

In this study, I examine how women's participation is framed within P/CVE policies, identifying three key logics: protection, political agency, and religion.

Check it out: doi.org/10.1080/1035...

Thank you so much, Sarah!

Last sunset from my three-week office at @uva.nl. What an intense experience this was: I met so many talented - and welcoming - PhD colleagues, have been in touch with an incredibly rich research environment, and gathered invaluable feedback on my own work. It really felt like home.

Deterrent or Stimulus? How Perceived Societal Stigma Affects Participation in Populist Radical Right Parties - Sofia Ammassari, 2025 While the effects of political stigma on populist radical right parties have been extensively investigated, we know little about the impact of societal stigma o...

My @polstudies.bsky.social article on stigma & grassroots activism in populist radical right (PRR) parties has now page numbers!

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Drawing on the 1st ever comparative survey of PRR party members, I ask how stigma affects their participation in party activities.

A foggy start to my research visit at the University of Amsterdam (@uva.nl), kindly hosted by @sldelange.bsky.social and @alessandronai.bsky.social. If you are around in the next three weeks, I'm happy to meet up!

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

Almost 500 downloads for our new article "Inside party youth wings: The YOUMEM project" over the past couple of weeks.

If you're interested in party organisations and/or young people in politics, this is for you:

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

It was great to kickstart 2025 at the University of Milan! Hosted by the wonderful School of Media and Communication, I had the opportunity to share my research on transnational engagement with PRR contents. I presented first insights from a brand new dataset of YouTube comments from 8 countries.

Our article "Inside Party Youth Wings: The YOUMEM Project" is online today & open access in Party Politics:

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

[A wee thread 🧵]

Just a normal afternoon walk at Griffith's Nathan campus.

@griffithuniversity.bsky.social

It was great to present my work on transnational populist publics at the very last - but excellent - panel of #APSA24

Thanks to my supervisory team and colleagues at Griffith for their endless support!

Is being a proud supervisee a thing? Congrats on this huge (& well deserved) achievement!

Want the full story? Join the stellar panel on Populism chaired by @duncanmcdonnell.bsky.social at ARTS161. It starts at 1.30 PM on Thursday.

(8/8)

Videos calling for mobilization or celebrating election wins boost transnational engagement too.

PRR audience transnationalisation reflects platform effects, and emerges not just from global narratives but also from domestic stories with cross-border appeal.

(7/8)

I then manually analysed videos attracting transnational commenters, coding their content and collecting engagement metrics.

I found that the more popular a video is, the more transnational comments it attracts.

(6/8)

I used social network analysis to plot yearly networks, in which channels are connected if they share the same commenters.

The result? Transnational links exist – and they’re growing! More users are engaging with PRR channels across borders over time.

(5/8)

PRR digital publics may help create a transnational far-right communicative space.

To test this, I analysed YouTube comments published between 2018 and 2024 on channels of the French National Rally, Brothers of Italy, the League, and US GOP.

(4/8)