Paper short abstract:

Anonymous and ephemeral imageboards like 4chan.org privilege shocking content and make it impossible to tell sincerity from jest. Based on participant observation, I want to show how their affordances participate in the construction of reactionary ideas of nationalism, race and gender.

Paper long abstract:

Anonymous imageboards like 4chan.org have long been hailed as utopian spaces for hackers: In opposition to the profiles, timelines and friendlists of Social Media, their completely anonymous and fleeting nature has given rise to a so-called "A-Culture" (Auerbach). Marked by an intentional disconnect between real life and online personae, it encourages transgressive content, constant suspicion and identity play. While 4chan.org was long associated with the collective "Anonymous" and the Occupy Wall Street protests, recent developments have revealed a "darker side" (boyd) to its pages. White supremacist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, the misogynist violence perpetrated by "incels" in the United States and Canada, as well as conspiracy theories like "Pizzagate" or "Q-Anon" have all been linked to 4chan and the "deep vernacular web" (Tuters, Phillips). Left-wing and Right-wing observers alike consider 4chan.org to be the "skeleton key to the rise of Trump" (Beran), and a "hub of alt-right activity" (Bokhari and Yiannopoulos). While it is impossible to assess the imageboard wholesale, its anonymity and ephemerality do serve to privilege shocking and offensive comments and make it impossible to tell sincerity from jest. A fundamental "ambivalence" (Milner and Phillips) characterizes the interactions and the content shared on the website. Based on participant observation conducted on 4chan.org, I want to highlight how these affordances participate in the construction and circulation of reactionary ideas of nationalism, race and gender.

Paper short abstract:

Following the Brexit referendum, the question of national identity and belonging was raised and challenged particularly in Scotland were their origins are strongly aligned with Europe. This paper explores the redefinition of contemporary Scottish identity through the use of digital media.

Paper long abstract:

The Brexit referendum created a fracture in European diplomacy but it also revealed a significant internal split within the UK, with Scotland voting to remain at 55.8%. In its pursuit of a separatist utopia free from the bonds of European policy, Brexit offers a fictionalised geography that denies Scotland's European cultural belonging. Digital media became a common ground during the campaign for disinformation, construction of "authentic" national identity and false hope. The Brexit result offered little for Scotland to voice their own identity and claim back their European heritage. In Museum, Migration and Identity in Europe, Whitehead, Lloyd, Eckersley and Manson explore the difficulties in which national museums could reinterpret their national identity in a changing political environment. By 2008, the National museum of Scotland tried to explore "the changing nation" by filming locals, giving the voices back to its communities to define their identity. Harrison argues, "Nationalism and Heritage are fundamentally intertwined". It is no longer a top-down but rather a community led experience that seems to establish a counter-heritage, in which the core notion on nationhood could be reinterpreted. Scotland seems to claim a different discourse from England, in which European integration is core to its own identity. Social media represents a key platform to reach and engage with its communities upon redefining non-conventional heritage and national identity. This paper will explore the construction of heritage, tradition and identity through the use of digital media, focusing particularly on the impact of social media upon Scottish society.

Paper short abstract:

Many countries are experiencing a rise of nationalism in mainstream political discourse, including China. This paper investigates how the new nationalist discourses emerge in the context of Chinese social media and its interaction between Chinese internet culture and online political participation

Paper long abstract:

In recent years many countries from west to east have been experiencing a conspicuous rise of nationalism in mainstream political discourse. As a key factor and a "virgin soil" social media offer multiple possibilities for these movements to forge and circulate their messages through new communication channels and sub/pop-cultural elements. Among these movements, a new Chinese cyber-nationalism wave whose activists are labeled as "little Pinks" has gained much attention since 2015. Usually, they were described as a group of social media user recognized for their strong female-led fandom characteristics and emotional discourse of irony/ridiculing, seduction and romance.

Using multi-sited online ethnography and discourse analysis I will investigate how the new nationalist discourses emerge and develop in the context of Chinese social media and its interaction between Chinese internet culture and online political participation. Drawing on the multifaceted digital material, I argue that this "little Pink" wave represents a new type of depoliticalized political participation through online identity politics and fandom culture: In the frame of online pop-culture, a popular nationalistic and "state-developmentalism" discourses are formed in an entertaining, fragmented and deconstructed way, while official mainstream nationalist discourse is merging with the online popular culture practices. It is the fandom-economic mechanism of Chinese social media that blurred the boundaries between online political participation and popular cultural practice. However, friction between official mainstream and popular nationalist discourse still exists because of Internet censorship against Influencers and entertainment programs.

Paper short abstract:

This paper outlines a theory of fake news by amplification. It argues that the networked circulation process that results from these acts of amplification can best be understood through their similarity to digital contemporary legends.

Paper long abstract:

To some, "Fake News" is a question of truth—a term that refers to purposely untrue stories that spread informally across networks and can be empirically disproven by facts. To others, "Fake News" means bias—a discrediting label hurled at media that disagrees with your viewpoint. This paper suggests a reorientation that looks at fake news not only in terms of "truth" or "bias" but also based on belief.

This paper outlines a theory of fake news by amplification. "Amplification" occurs when news or events become amplified beyond their importance due to the affordances of networks. A few users tweeting rapidly may produce a trending hashtag; a few partisan blog posts may be picked up by television news and given mainstream credibility as a "controversy." Problematically, amplification leads to distortion. As stories become amplified over networks, they lose important context, like the size of the controversy or whether something began as a joke. This distortion only increases as stories spread and users add new context or interpretations based on existing worldviews and media narratives.

I argue that the networked circulation process resulting from this amplification can best be understood through its similarity to digital contemporary legends. Like legends, these stories aren't made up wholesale—they are based on real people and events while also stretching the boundaries of what we know to be true. The resulting fake news becomes difficult to counter because it goes beyond questions of fact and enters the realm of interpretation, enabled by widespread, networked belief.