Different countries, but the same? The polarisation of communication on migratory flows in Columbia and Italy

Abstract

The overall objective of the article is to demonstrate how the polarisation of communication observed in today’s fragmented society on certain issues is not due to the similarity of the sociocultural and historical contexts of different countries but rather to the social problem being communicated. To do so, the subject of this article is communication referring to migration flows—a universal phenomenon and hot topic in international public debate—that generates, more often than not, polarisation oriented toward hostility toward migrants. To achieve this objective, with the support of the analysis of multiple cases of media communication (analysis of language and forms of communication), we will observe what happens in two countries (Italy and Colombia) is entirely different. Despite its limitations due to the impossibility of generalising the findings to all social phenomena, the article highlights how the two diametrically different countries can polarise communication towards migrants with similar hate speech within social networks and digital platforms. This leads to the specific objective: to open a critical debate around the dynamics that polarise communication, mainly if it takes on negative valences.