Mellem underholdende kedsomhed og bedøvende overstimulering
Affektive rytmer i oplevelsen af hashtag-fænomenet #ProudBoys på Twitter
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7146/mk.v38i72.125739Keywords:
#ProudBoys, affect theory, autoethnography, hashtag-phenomena, minor feelings, TwitterAbstract
This article explores what role minor and ambivalent feelings play in the experi- ence of hashtag phenomena on social media. The case study is the hashtag-flooding phenomenon that happened on Twitter in the autumn of 2020, where a group of homosexual men and supporters started using the hashtag #ProudBoys to change its connotation to the eponymous far-right group. With an affect-driven autoethnographic analysis, I explore how minor feelings are engendered in the experience of the #ProudBoys-phenomenon and how they are part of the affective public that is created in the activity of producing a new context for the hashtag. I conclude with the proposition that minor feelings had a significant effect on how my attention was kept while engaging in the #ProudBoys-phenomenon on Twitter. Furthermore, I propose that the phenomenon is an example of hashtag activism that is characterized more by everyday collective identity-building than acute urgency around a public matter.
References
Beckett, S. (1964). How it is. Grove.
Boehme, H.M., & Scott, D.A. I. (2020). Alt-white? A gendered look at “victim” ideology and the alt-right. Victims & Offenders, 15(2), 174-196. https://doi.org/10.1080/15564886.2019.1679308
Boellstorff, T., Nardi, B., Pearce, C., & Taylor, T.L. (2012). Ethnography and virtual worlds: A handbook of method. Princeton University Press. Bokhari, A., & Yiannopoulos. M. (2016, March 29). An establishment conservative’s guide to the alt-right. Breitbart. https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/03/29/an-establishment-conservatives-guide-to-the-alt-right/
Bolt, M., & Sharma, D. (2016). Kritikkens fortsættelse – Interview med Sianne Ngai. Kultur og Klasse, 122, 5-10. https://doi.org/10.7146/kok.v44i122.25048
Bryden, J., & Silverman, E. (2019). Underlying socio-political processes behind the 2016 US election. PloS ONE, 14(4), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0214854
Bødker, M., & Chamberlain, A. (2016). Affect theory and autoethnography in ordinary information systems. Research Papers, 178. https://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2016_rp/178
Caldeira, S.P., De Ridder, S., & Van Bauwel, S. (2020). Between the mundane and the political: Women’s selfrepresentations on Instagram. Social Media + Society, (July-September), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120940802
Cambridge Dictionary. (n.d). Stupefied. In Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary & Thesaurus. Retrieved December 12, 2021, from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/stupefied
Campbell, S.W., & Kwak, N. (2010). Mobile communication and civic life: Linking patterns of use to civic and political engagement. Journal of Communication, 60(3), 536-555. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2010.01496.x
Carissimo, J. (2017, February 2). Reddit shuts down two popular alt right subreddits. The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/reddit-shuts-down-two-popular-alt-right-subreddits-a7558481.html
Dahlgren, P. (2018) Media, knowledge and trust: The deepening epistemic crisis of democracy. Journal of the European Institute of Communication and Culture, 25(1-2), 20-27. https://doi.org/10.1080/13183222.2018.1418819
Daniszewski, J. (2016, November 28). Writing about the “alt-right”. Associated Press. https://blog.ap.org/_70e
Dean, J. (2010). Affective networks. Mediatropes, 2(2), 19-44.
DeCook, J. (2018). Memes and symbolic violence: #proudboys and the use of memes for propaganda and the construction of collective identity. Learning, Media and Technology, 43(4), 485-504. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2018.1544149
Deleuze, G. (1995). Negotiations, 1972-1990 (M. Joughin, Trans.). Columbia University Press.
Descartes, R. (1644). Principia philosophiae. Ludovicum Elzevirium.
de Zúñiga, H.G., Molyneux, G., & Zheng, P. (2014). Social media, political expression, and political participation: Panel analysis of lagged and concurrent relationships. Journal of Communication, 64(4), 612-634. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcom.12103
Earl, J., Hurwitz, H.M., Mesinas, A.M., Tolan, M., & Arlotti, A. (2013). This protest will be tweeted: Twitter and protest policing during the Pittsburgh G20. Information, Communication & Society, 16(4), 459-478. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2013.777756
Elassar, A. (2020, October 4). Gay men have taken over the Proud Boys Twitter hashtag. CNN. https://lite.cnn.com/en/article/h_cc7024535acb2ef3b8abbf7409e0781f
Forscher, P.S., & Kteily, N.S. (2020). A psychological profile of the alt-right. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 15(1), 90-116. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691619868208
Gallaher, C. (2021). Mainstreaming white supremacy: a twitter analysis of the American ‘alt-right’. Gender, Place & Culture, 28(2), 224-252. https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2019.1710472
Gallucci, N. (2020, December 30). 2020 was the year activists mastered hashtag flooding. Mashable. https://mashable.com/article/hashtag-flooding-activism
Ganesh, B. (2020). Weaponizing white thymos: flows of rage in the online audiences of the alt-right. Cultural Studies, 34(6), 892-924. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2020.1714687
Hawley, G. (2017). Making sense of the alt-right. Columbia University Press.
Haßler, J., Wurst, A., Jungblut, M., & Schlosser, K. (2021, June 28). Influence of the pandemic lockdown on Fridays for Future’s hashtag activism. New Media & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448211026575
Hillis, K., Paasonen S., & Petit, M. (Eds.). (2015). Networked affect. MIT Press.
Hodge, E., & Hallgrimsdottir, H. (2020). Networks of hate: The alt-right, “troll culture”, and the cultural geography of social movement spaces online. Journal of Borderlands Studies, 35(4), 536-580. https://doi.org/10.1080/08865655.2019.1571935
Hänska-Ahy, M.T., & Shapour, R. (2013). Who’s reporting the protests? Converging practices of citizen journalists and two BBC world service newsrooms, from Iran‘s election protests to the Arab uprisings. Journalism Studies, 14(1), 29-45. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2012.657908
Isom, D.A., Boehme, H.M., Cann, D., & Wilson, A. (2021). The White right: A gendered look at the links between “victim” ideology and anti-Black Lives Matter sentiments in the era of Trump. Critical Sociology. https://doi.org/10.1177/08969205211020396
Jackson, S.J., Bailey M., & Welles, B.F. (2020). #HashtagActivism: Networks of race and gender justice. MIT Press.
Jenkins, H., Ford, S., & Green, J. (2013). Spreadable media: Creating value and meaning in a networked culture. New York University Press.
Karatzogianni, A., & Kuntsman, A. (2012). Digital cultures and the politics of emotion: Feelings, affect and technological change. Palgrave Macmillan.
Kelly, A. (2017). The alt-right: reactionary rehabilitation for white masculinity. Soundings, 66(11), 68-78. https://doi.org/10.3898/136266217821733688
Koller, A. (2010). The public sphere and comparative historical research: An introduction. Social Science History, 34(3), 261-290. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0145553200011263
Lorenzo-Dus, N., & Nouri, L. (2020). The discourse of the US alt-right online – a case study of the Tradition- alist Worker Party blog. Critical Discourse Studies, 18(4), 410-428. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2019.1708763
Lyons, M. (2017). Ctrl-alt-delete: An antifascit report on the alternative right. Political Research Associates. https://www.politicalresearch.org/2017/01/20/ctrl-alt-delete-reporton-the-alternative-right#toc-part-3-relationship-with-donaldtrump
Ma, C. (2021). What is the “lite” in “alt-lite”? The discourse of white vulnerability and dominance among YouTube’s reactionaries. Social Media + Society, (July-September). https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051211036385
Massumi, B. (2002). Parables for the virtual: Movement, affect, sensation. Duke University Press.
Mutz, D.C. (2018, May). Status threat, not economic hardship, explains the 2016 presidential vote. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(19), E4330–E4339. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1718155115
Nagle, A. (2017). Kill all normies: Online culture wars from 4chan and Tumbler to Trump and the alt-right. Zero Books.
Ngai, S. (2005). Ugly Feelings. Harvard University Press.
Ngai, S. (2015). Our aesthetic categories. Harvard University Press.
Papacharissi, Z. (2015). Affective publics and structures of storytelling: sentiment, events and mediality. Information, Communication & Society, 19(3), 307-324. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2015.1109697
Reed-Danahay, D.E. (1997). Auto/ethnography: Rewriting the Self and the Social. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003136118
Seigworth, G.J., & Gregg, M. (2010). The affect theory reader. Duke University Press.
Sommer, W. (2017, February 5). The fratty Proud Boys are the alt right’s weirdest new phenomenon. https://medium.com/@willsommer/the-fratty-proud-boys-are-the-alt-rights-weirdest-new-phenomenon-7572b31e50f2
Southern Poverty Law Center. (n.d.). Alt-right. https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/alt-right
Speakman, B. (2021). A knight in sheep’s clothing: Media framing of the alt-right can alter the image of racist groups. Journal of Creative Communications, 16(1), 81-96. https://doi.org/10.1177/0973258620977983
Spinoza, B. (1677). Ethics: On the correction of understanding (A. Boyle Trans.). Everyman’s Library. (Original work published 1952)
Sundén, J., & Paasonen, S. (2018). Shameless hags and tolerance whores: feminist resistance and the affective circuits of online hate. Feminist media studies, 18 (4), 643-656. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2018.1447427
Thorson, K., Driscoll, K., Ekdale, B., Edgerly, S., Thompson, L.G., Schrock, A., Swartz, L., Vraga, E.K., & Wells, C. (2013). YouTube, Twitter and the Occupy Movement: Connecting content and circulation practices. Information, Communication & Society, 16(3), 421-451. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2012.756051
Thrift, N. (2004). Intensities of feeling: Towards a spatial politics of affect. Geografiska Annaler, 86(1), 57-78. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0435-3684.2004.00154.x
van Dijk, J., & Poell, T. (2015). Social media and the transformation of public space. Social Media + Society, (July-December), 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305115622482
Wonneberger, A., Hellsten, I.R., & Jacobs, S.H.J. (2020). Hashtag activism and the configuration of counterpublics: Dutch animal welfare debates on Twitter. Information, Communication & Society, 24(12), 1694-1711. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2020.1720770
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 author and journal
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Articles submitted to MedieKultur should not be submitted to or published in other journals. Articles published in MedieKultur may be used (downloaded) and reused (distributed, copied, cited) for non-commercial purposes with reference to the authors and publication host.
The authors and MedieKultur own the copyright to the published articles and reviews.
