Discourse &Communication, Ahead of Print.
The movement for reparations for those enslaved on the North American continent from 1450 to 1866 has a long history fraught with debate, criticized by individuals on both the right and left sides of the political spectrum. Specific points of contention include how much money should be allocated, who the recipients and potential liable parties should be, and what specific form reparations should take. Accounting for this historical opposition, this paper employs a corpus-based discourse analysis to examine the communicative barriers to implementing reparations. The corpora consisted of YouTube comments posted to news reports of six cities’ reparations proposals. I utilized Sketch Engine to examine frequency of keywords, collocations, and concordance, followed by a close-reading discourse analysis of lexical, grammatical, and tonal elements. The analysis revealed myriad constructions of reparations resulting in inertia, the institutional tendency to preserve the status quo. This discursive formation is consequential not only for its implications for reparations, but for broader structural reform efforts.
Ranting in emotional public spheres: Publicizing participatory challenges on YouTube
Convergence, Ahead of Print.
Ranting has a bad reputation. But is it always deserved? Online ranting has been alternatively decried for its emotion-laden hostility and praised as a beloved video genre. By exploring a qualitative corpus of YouTube rant videos, this article analyzes how problem-centric rants may serve as forms of proto civic engagement. The article shows that problem-centric rants contribute to emotional public spheres, in which emotions and logic combine to publicize personally-experienced participatory problems and to contribute to civic discourse for others similarly impacted. It reveals the discourse strategies that ranters use to persuade viewers that the site’s policies and the behavior of other participants are complicating self-expression through video. Discourse strategies include counter-balancing criticism with praise, interpellating addressees into a civic public, and focusing criticisms on the powerful. The article contributes to research on social media-based civic engagement and emotional public spheres by analyzing rant videos that expose issues with tech- nologized and commercialized communicative frameworks in digital spaces.
Ranting has a bad reputation. But is it always deserved? Online ranting has been alternatively decried for its emotion-laden hostility and praised as a beloved video genre. By exploring a qualitative corpus of YouTube rant videos, this article analyzes how problem-centric rants may serve as forms of proto civic engagement. The article shows that problem-centric rants contribute to emotional public spheres, in which emotions and logic combine to publicize personally-experienced participatory problems and to contribute to civic discourse for others similarly impacted. It reveals the discourse strategies that ranters use to persuade viewers that the site’s policies and the behavior of other participants are complicating self-expression through video. Discourse strategies include counter-balancing criticism with praise, interpellating addressees into a civic public, and focusing criticisms on the powerful. The article contributes to research on social media-based civic engagement and emotional public spheres by analyzing rant videos that expose issues with tech- nologized and commercialized communicative frameworks in digital spaces.
Distinction within the ‘global north’? A Bourdieusian approach for analysing development discourse: The case of U.S. and E.U. relations with the Colombian state (2016–2022): A comparative analysis
Discourse &Society, Ahead of Print.
The paper conducts a comparative analysis of EU (91 texts) and US (93 texts) discourses concerning post-peace accord Colombia (late 2016 to mid-2022). Employing a Bourdieu-influenced methodology, our proposal aims to reconcile Post-Development theories with International Relations research. This innovative and multidimensional approach illuminates both discursive continuities within Global North while concurrently providing a framework that allows to identify and interpret internal political divergences. Our findings highlight a shared commitment to a liberal conception of peacebuilding, alongside internal distinction strategies employed to legitimize respective policies towards Colombia.
The paper conducts a comparative analysis of EU (91 texts) and US (93 texts) discourses concerning post-peace accord Colombia (late 2016 to mid-2022). Employing a Bourdieu-influenced methodology, our proposal aims to reconcile Post-Development theories with International Relations research. This innovative and multidimensional approach illuminates both discursive continuities within Global North while concurrently providing a framework that allows to identify and interpret internal political divergences. Our findings highlight a shared commitment to a liberal conception of peacebuilding, alongside internal distinction strategies employed to legitimize respective policies towards Colombia.
How diabetes forum-users complain about others’ expectations: Troubles-telling and troubles-receiving
Discourse &Communication, Ahead of Print.
This article offers a qualitative analysis of two instances of troubles-telling threads on a diabetes forum, with a specific focus on how these instances contribute to constructing a way to manage others’ expectations concerning how persons diagnosed with diabetes control their condition. From the perspective of conversation analysis and discursive psychology, this article shows some recurrent features of both troubles-telling (namely announcement, stake inoculation and self-deprecation) and of troubles-receiving (namely appreciation, second stories, escalation). Our analysis furthermore shows how inadequate expectations from family members are judged differently from those of health professionals. The latter are judged more harshly for what seems a lack of professional competence, whereas the former are more easily pardoned but pose a particular challenge in that patients do not wish to remove these persons from their lives. Through this analysis, we contribute to showing a particularly important function of patient fora, namely allowing patients to tell troubles about others’ expectations and to receive support and advice for these circumstances that put a heavy emotional burden.
This article offers a qualitative analysis of two instances of troubles-telling threads on a diabetes forum, with a specific focus on how these instances contribute to constructing a way to manage others’ expectations concerning how persons diagnosed with diabetes control their condition. From the perspective of conversation analysis and discursive psychology, this article shows some recurrent features of both troubles-telling (namely announcement, stake inoculation and self-deprecation) and of troubles-receiving (namely appreciation, second stories, escalation). Our analysis furthermore shows how inadequate expectations from family members are judged differently from those of health professionals. The latter are judged more harshly for what seems a lack of professional competence, whereas the former are more easily pardoned but pose a particular challenge in that patients do not wish to remove these persons from their lives. Through this analysis, we contribute to showing a particularly important function of patient fora, namely allowing patients to tell troubles about others’ expectations and to receive support and advice for these circumstances that put a heavy emotional burden.
‘If it’s held dear, it’ll get pushed through’: Transmedia narratives, play cultures, and soft canon in tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs)
International Journal of Cultural Studies, Ahead of Print.
Transmedia storytelling is a strategy adopted by media franchises and brands to create participatory story-worlds for their consumers; it incorporates a range of forms, actors, and texts, all of which have varying degrees of narrative authority in determining the events that occur. This article focuses on tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons to show how play cultures in Singapore are shaped by transmedia storytelling techniques. In doing so, it makes two contributions to existing research: first, it shifts scholarly focus from game texts to player practice, showing how communities of play are created through players’ emergent usage of transmedia storytelling techniques. Second, it describes a player practice of soft canon, which I theorise as an approach to shared world-making that prioritises the emotional resonance of narrative details over a positivist accounting of narrative events. The concept of soft canon reveals a new perspective on how communities create and sustain intersubjectively imagined worlds.
Transmedia storytelling is a strategy adopted by media franchises and brands to create participatory story-worlds for their consumers; it incorporates a range of forms, actors, and texts, all of which have varying degrees of narrative authority in determining the events that occur. This article focuses on tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons to show how play cultures in Singapore are shaped by transmedia storytelling techniques. In doing so, it makes two contributions to existing research: first, it shifts scholarly focus from game texts to player practice, showing how communities of play are created through players’ emergent usage of transmedia storytelling techniques. Second, it describes a player practice of soft canon, which I theorise as an approach to shared world-making that prioritises the emotional resonance of narrative details over a positivist accounting of narrative events. The concept of soft canon reveals a new perspective on how communities create and sustain intersubjectively imagined worlds.
A global approach to studying platforms and cultural production
International Journal of Cultural Studies, Ahead of Print.
There is a major blindspot regarding our understanding of different structural models of platformization beyond the dominant Anglo-American markets. This article develops a typology of political economic models of platformization by using the case of music platformization. In order to generate such a typology, the article proposes that we start by identifying variables present in any music market around the world. Three different variables are proposed: (1) platform dependence; (2) dominance of ‘global’ platforms; and (3) the degree of platform and recording industry integration. To illustrate how these variables result in structurally distinct models of platformization, the article briefly discusses the cases of South Korea, the Netherlands and Nigeria. In doing so, a framework is provided through which to interpret the experiences and conditions of musicians, and other cultural producers, in diverse platform ecosystems.
There is a major blindspot regarding our understanding of different structural models of platformization beyond the dominant Anglo-American markets. This article develops a typology of political economic models of platformization by using the case of music platformization. In order to generate such a typology, the article proposes that we start by identifying variables present in any music market around the world. Three different variables are proposed: (1) platform dependence; (2) dominance of ‘global’ platforms; and (3) the degree of platform and recording industry integration. To illustrate how these variables result in structurally distinct models of platformization, the article briefly discusses the cases of South Korea, the Netherlands and Nigeria. In doing so, a framework is provided through which to interpret the experiences and conditions of musicians, and other cultural producers, in diverse platform ecosystems.
Do We Know Whether to Laugh or Cry? User Responses to @Ukraine’s Dark-humour Meme
Journal of Creative Communications, Ahead of Print.
This study investigates international users’ reception of a dark-humour meme tweeted by Ukraine’s governmental Twitter (X) account on 7 December 2021 as part of its exceptional cultural practice of posting humorous memes. Tweeters’ responses to the ‘headaches meme’ are examined through a discourse-analytic lens. An emphasis is placed on the appreciation of the humour (emanating from the meme or its contextual embedding) and other forms of humour support demonstrated by its online indicators. The overarching aim is to distil and compare user reactions to the meme in two sociopolitical contexts—before and after the invasion of Ukraine that Russia mounted on 24 February 2022—based on two equal quote tweet samples. While the findings reveal a relative decrease in humour appreciation after the invasion, the same diversified reactions encompassing humour support or its lack and politically polarised discourses making for participatory digital warfare are detected in both parts of the dataset.
This study investigates international users’ reception of a dark-humour meme tweeted by Ukraine’s governmental Twitter (X) account on 7 December 2021 as part of its exceptional cultural practice of posting humorous memes. Tweeters’ responses to the ‘headaches meme’ are examined through a discourse-analytic lens. An emphasis is placed on the appreciation of the humour (emanating from the meme or its contextual embedding) and other forms of humour support demonstrated by its online indicators. The overarching aim is to distil and compare user reactions to the meme in two sociopolitical contexts—before and after the invasion of Ukraine that Russia mounted on 24 February 2022—based on two equal quote tweet samples. While the findings reveal a relative decrease in humour appreciation after the invasion, the same diversified reactions encompassing humour support or its lack and politically polarised discourses making for participatory digital warfare are detected in both parts of the dataset.
‘I produce songs for her …. In this way, I gradually know her more. The more I know her, the more I like her’: Using Collins’ model of interactive ritual chains to study the case of virtual idol fandom in China
Convergence, Ahead of Print.
In the last decade, virtual idols have become increasingly popular among young people in China with news reports estimating a fan-base of around 300 million and total industry revenues of over $35 billion in 2020 (Bloomberg, 2021). Despite these startling figures, there have been few empirical studies of virtual idol fandom. To address this lacuna, this paper explores the ways in which fans engage with the Chinese virtual idol Luo Tianyi and uses insights from Randall Collin’s (2004) work on Interactive Ritual Chains (IRC) to understand the relationship between digital fan practices and the generation of both emotional responses and a wider sense of solidarity Semi-structured interviews with fans, alongside digital participant observation, indicate the key role fans have to play in promoting their idol, notably when it comes to producing original content designed to raise her profile. It is these activities, in conjunction with gender differences, that are used to define hierarchies within the community, and point to the importance of adopting a more critical perspective in relation to Collins’ original work.
In the last decade, virtual idols have become increasingly popular among young people in China with news reports estimating a fan-base of around 300 million and total industry revenues of over $35 billion in 2020 (Bloomberg, 2021). Despite these startling figures, there have been few empirical studies of virtual idol fandom. To address this lacuna, this paper explores the ways in which fans engage with the Chinese virtual idol Luo Tianyi and uses insights from Randall Collin’s (2004) work on Interactive Ritual Chains (IRC) to understand the relationship between digital fan practices and the generation of both emotional responses and a wider sense of solidarity Semi-structured interviews with fans, alongside digital participant observation, indicate the key role fans have to play in promoting their idol, notably when it comes to producing original content designed to raise her profile. It is these activities, in conjunction with gender differences, that are used to define hierarchies within the community, and point to the importance of adopting a more critical perspective in relation to Collins’ original work.
Selling Otherness on YouTube: Digital inter-Asian Orientalism and YouTube monetization system
International Journal of Cultural Studies, Ahead of Print.
This article investigates the influence of YouTube's monetization metrics on content creation practices and their reflection of geopolitical and economic factors. Using the case study of “Team Azimkiya,” a Bangladeshi YouTube channel primarily targeting South Korean viewers, the study introduces the concept of “global CPM arbitrage.” CPM, or cost per 1000 impressions, estimates advertising revenue for channels. Global CPM arbitrage characterizes content creators’ strategic approach to leverage varying CPM rates across geographic regions, optimizing their advertising revenue within the YouTube ecosystem. While CPM is often seen as an objective metric, the analysis of Team Azimkiya's strategies reveals its role in constructing audiences and directing higher-revenue viewers. In a platform that exhibits a preference for content from more affluent regions, self-Orientalization emerges as an effective content creation approach. This article argues that this approach can perpetuate the inter-Asian dynamic and the Orientalist gaze.
This article investigates the influence of YouTube's monetization metrics on content creation practices and their reflection of geopolitical and economic factors. Using the case study of “Team Azimkiya,” a Bangladeshi YouTube channel primarily targeting South Korean viewers, the study introduces the concept of “global CPM arbitrage.” CPM, or cost per 1000 impressions, estimates advertising revenue for channels. Global CPM arbitrage characterizes content creators’ strategic approach to leverage varying CPM rates across geographic regions, optimizing their advertising revenue within the YouTube ecosystem. While CPM is often seen as an objective metric, the analysis of Team Azimkiya's strategies reveals its role in constructing audiences and directing higher-revenue viewers. In a platform that exhibits a preference for content from more affluent regions, self-Orientalization emerges as an effective content creation approach. This article argues that this approach can perpetuate the inter-Asian dynamic and the Orientalist gaze.
Book review: Living with algorithms: Agency and user culture in Costa Rica
Convergence, Ahead of Print.