Zwischen Staatsskepsis und Verschwörungsmythen. Eine Figurationsanalyse zur kommunikativen Konstruktion von Gegenöffentlichkeiten auf Telegram

This article analyses how Telegram channels, whose content emotionalizes, polarizes, and disinforms, are structured. We assume that state-skeptical counter-publics are communicatively formed on Telegram, and that these can be reconstructed as a figuration along specific actors, practices, topics, and horizons of orientation. We reconstruct this figuration based on expert interviews and a qualitative content analysis of 576 posts from wide-reaching German-language Telegram channels. This analysis encompasses the topics they address, the ways they present their content, and their utilization of links. Based on these findings, we construct a typology to categorize these actors and their practices. Curating proves to be a central practice that is used by various, though not all, actors: Content, which is often multimedia based, is taken from other platforms, from other Telegram channels and from alternative and established media. This practice creates links between monothematic channels, channels that can be clearly assigned to a specific ideology and those that serve a broad spectrum of topics and orientations.