Political Hate Speech in Political Processions: A Comparative Analysis of PMLN, PPP and PTI Processions for Election 2018

Abstract

Thrust of study is to discern how speeches made in political processions are changing patterns of political communication and political expression. This paper aims to analyze political hate speech and different forms of political hate speech produced in political processions specifically during pre-election period. Hostile criticism, defamatory and derogatory statements in these speeches enable generations of hate speech and intolerance discourses. It is an attempt to obtain a 1st perception of hate speech phenomenon within Pakistan political sphere and to demonstrate what forms of hate speech are being produced, as well as what are the attributes of hate speech messages. Undoubtedly, hate speech by these political representatives and leaders could possibly obstruct constructive process of deliberation and also threaten democracy. Findings of the paper are based on analysis of all speeches made by representatives of three political parties of Pakistan from January 2018 to June 2018 in pre-election campaign. Content from 71 political speeches is analyzed besides classified into categories based on communication form, hate speech characteristics, hate speech targets besides hate speech producer’s attributes. Research finds that most of the hate speech produced by politicians is just a political tool used for the sake of political gains. According to this Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) was the leading party in processions of hate speech. They were chanting slogans against their rivals. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) were on second position in using hate content while Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) were third.