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- Convenors:
-
Andrew Peck
(Miami University)
Robert Glenn "Rob" Howard (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Send message to Convenors
- Formats:
- Panel
- Stream:
- Digital Lives
- Sessions:
- Thursday 24 June, -
Time zone: Europe/Helsinki
Short Abstract:
From hoaxes, rumors, and conspiracy theories to new opportunities for protest, this panel will explore how the rapid increase in digitally distanced social and work life during the COVID-19 pandemic brought a rapid increase in transgressions (and opportunities to transgress) in our digital world.
Long Abstract:
2020 is the year of social distancing. Early in the year, many official institutions recommended--or even mandated--that citizens move out of social spaces to combat the spread of the emerging global pandemic. Many of the folk subsequently relocated their busy lives into their homes and other private spaces, leaving once bustling sidewalks, crowded restaurants, and familiar offices empty. Whether communicating with co-workers through virtual meetings or with distant loved ones via social media, our everyday connections during this lockdown are increasingly mediated by digital communication.
In a year defined by the digital connections that are necessitated by social distancing, anxiety about health, politics, and social inequities has flourished. These anxieties, enabled by our networked connections, bloom into rumors and inspire the creation of hoaxes and conspiracy theories that attempt to make sense out of the uncertainty of these “unprecedented times.”
From conspiracy theories involving the spread of the novel coronavirus through the signals carried by cellular towers to environmental protestors forming “virtual human chains” on Instagram, this panel will explore how the rapid increase in digital and distanced work-life has led to a proliferation of both folkloric expression in belief-bases genres and protest actions that both extend those genres and challenge the digital media where they are emerging. These new digital norms present new forms of transgression for purposes both noble and nefarious.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 24 June, 2021, -Paper short abstract:
The authors study social bots of the Russian social network VKontakte, which use the COVID-19 theme and promote conspiracy narratives about digital slavery, food and medicines poisoning, and also pursue hidden propaganda goals.
Paper long abstract:
The infodemia appeared on the informational wave of COVID-19 and actualized the spread of conspiracy narratives seeking to "find the culprits" in the global disaster. Following the first wave of COVID-19 (March-June 2020), social media researchers have identified a number of conspiracy narratives linking the pandemic to the malicious actions of China, B. Gates, 5G technology, and others.
The authors focus on the problem of using social bots in social networks to promote conspiracy narratives. This creates an information explosion in the popularity of ambigious content. The authors present the results of an empirical study of social bots of the Russian social network VKontakte in period from March 16, 2020 - May 26, 2020. The study was carried out using an original comprehensive method for detecting botnets, including the method of frequency analysis of posted messages, profiling of bot accounts and analysis of the content of publications. As a result, the authors discovered botnets that use the COVID-19 theme and promote conspiracy narratives on the social network related to the danger of mass poisoning of food, water and medicines, as well as the danger of “digital slavery” of the population through the massive introduction of biometric data. The authors analyze the hidden goals (of a political and marketing nature) for the dissemination of the analyzed conspiracy narratives.
Paper short abstract:
Case study focused on digital activities performed by cape verdean professional tellers during the lockdown. Centralised on the presentation of traditional repertoires in deterritorialized environments and its effects on cultural identity, traditional knowledge and performance practices.
Paper long abstract:
The contemporary dynamics of storytelling movements across the globe have brought into light questions about tradition, performance, cultural heritage and, nonetheless, social power and order. The presentation of the traditional repertoire in pedagogic and artistic environments has brought change to the narratives themselves as well as to the storytelling art and its practices. This case study focuses on the professionalised oral storytelling movement in Cape Verde, specifically the activities that took place online, for two months, during the lockdown due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Whilst the digitally mediated activities generated interesting interactions between the professional storytellers residing in the archipelago and individuals across the complex cape-verdean diaspora, it has also raised questions about the cultural diffusion of the traditional repertoire, authenticity, the level of accessibility of minority groups and the digital performatic practices of storytelling (as well as its limits).
This analysis, more than presenting specific conclusions, seeks to ponder the complex dynamics of power, participation and cultural identity that evolve in contexts of digital performance, especially when these are centered around traditional repertoires and narratives. It also aims to enhance our knowledge about the contemporary boundaries of performance, tradition and cultural identity while taking into account the cultural power of storytelling as a tool for maintaining or breaking the social order. The data to be presented was collected through different methodologies and is also framed by the ongoing PhD thesis developed by the proponent (“New storytelling practices and uses of tradition: patrimonialisation and oral narratives in Cape Verde”).
Paper short abstract:
From images of police handing self-proclaimed militia men bottled water to frame-by-frame analysis of bloody video, social media transformed a scared kid into a gun rights martyr. Beyond gun policy, the discourse about the Kenosha protest shootings imagines a new vernacular American identity.
Paper long abstract:
Late in August of 2020 as the world was gripped by the COVID19 pandemic, months of protests against police brutality and racism in the United States had drawn thousands out from quarantine. After a black man was shot in the back by police in a small industrial town deep in the US heartland, a Facebook group was set up to encourage individuals supportive of the police to come to Kenosha, Wisconsin and "help protect" private property. A 17-year old boy was among a small contingent of gun-rights advocates who arrived in the small town. Later that night, that boy would kill two individuals and seriously wound a third. None of those facts were ever in question because a huge amount of amateur video poured onto social media as soon as the events unfolded. From images of Kenosha police handing out bottled water to these self-proclaimed militia men to frame by frame analysis of grainy video of the moments before the first shooting, gun rights activists on social media immediately began transforming that boy from a untrained scared kid illegally possessing a firearm in public, to a cold blooded killer, to a gun rights martyr. Far more than just a discussion of firearm policy in the US, a close analysis of this social media discourse will demonstrate how the meaning, affect, and attitudes displayed in this discourse are as much about imagining an American national identity.