Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality.
Log in
- Convenors:
-
Coppélie Cocq
(Umeå University)
Liisi Laineste (Estonian Literary Museum)
Send message to Convenors
- Format:
- Panel
- Stream:
- Digital lives
- Location:
- B2.51
- Sessions:
- Thursday 8 June, -, -
Time zone: Europe/Prague
Short Abstract:
Any societal crisis, such as the war in Ukraine, is likely to bring forth new heroes and villains. In this panel we discuss what is specific to imagining the good and the evil in the digital, often visual environment and how it adapts to the needs and interests of people living today.
Long Abstract:
Any societal crisis or conflict, as can be illustrated by the currently ongoing war in Ukraine, or the global environmental crisis, is likely to give rise to a duel between heroes and villains. The established generalised images of heroes and villains help to create familiar frames of references at the times of uncertainty and embody the complex issues in a simplified form.
Present-day globally and digitally known heroes and villains, quite like those in the past, are based on the convictions and knowledge of the people who create them. However, the digital dimension adds its own twist to the juxtaposition of good and evil - often with serious implications for our democracies, and with the risk of polarization.
In this panel, we discuss what is specific to imagining good and evil in digital, often visual, environments and how it adapts to the needs and interests of people living today. We invite papers that discuss the mechanisms and outcomes of heroisation and villainisation in the digital public space, for instance in relation to textual, oral and/or (audio)visual storytelling, folklore types, media ecology, ways of expressing emotions, or vernacular authority.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 8 June, 2023, -Hannah Wadle (Adam Mickiewicz University)
Paper short abstract:
The paper proposes an imaginary conversation with members of global lionfish populations and their contemporary experiences of belonging. Within a few years, the lionfish has become an underwater villain that is featured on media and travel reports and occupies scientists and local communities. The paper interrogates human narrations of the lionfish and urges us to question how we make sense of the unintentional in global connectivities.
Paper long abstract:
The presentation draws on the experiences of lionfish populations and the contemporary mythologies and performances that surround them. As a side effect to the dynamics of international pet trade, multiplying hurricane incidents, and global containership mobilities, different populations of lionfish across the globe happened find new habitats which privileged them with favourable living conditions in recent years. Meanwhile, as a result, researchers, politicians, local populations, and tourists, have started to work together to fight new lionfish populations as invasive species. The lionfish unfolds as a contemporary mythology with yet emerging moralities and ritual practices that offers new understandings of role-allocations in the anthropocene.
This presentation proposes to imagine lionfish populations as living jesters whose lives reflect human interventions, moralities and ideas of entitlement, while being existentially connected to them. The lionfish populations and their stories are tightly interwoven with human consumerist and political desires and contextualised within the ongoing climate emergency. The contribution proposes an imaginary conversation with members of the global lionfish population, pterois miles, and their contemporary experiences and observations of belonging. It interrogates human performances and narrations of the lionfish and suggests that they hold up a mirror to moralizing risk and mobilitity narratives and urge us to question how we make sense of the accidental and the unintentional in global connectivities.
Liisi Laineste (Estonian Literary Museum) Anastasiya Fiadotava (Estonian Literary Museum)
Paper short abstract:
Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, new heroes and villains have appeared in the digital public space. The article discusses how the most prominent of these, Zelenskyy and Putin, appear in internet memes collected in Estonian and Belarusian social media between February 24 and April 8, 2022.
Paper long abstract:
Wars and other acute social conflicts are a fruitful ground for the emergence of heroes and villains. This is true for the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine: both the news media and ordinary people have found targets for villainisation (Russian president Vladimir Putin) and heroisation (Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy) since the outbreak of war. The article discusses how the public images of the two leaders appeared in internet memes collected in Estonian and Belarusian social media between February 24 and April 8, 2022. Analysing them against the backdrop of the (stereo)typical traits of heroes and villains in folklore, we outline how the new media format affects the way these two juxtaposed images are portrayed in memes. We also focus on the juxtaposition as one of the key strategies both in the processes of villainisation/heroisation and of humour production. The clear juxtaposition between good and evil in war humour distinguishes it from disaster jokes, which do not usually take a definite stance towards their targets.
Katalin Vargha (Institute of Ethnology, Research Centre for the Humanities)
Paper short abstract:
Chuck Norris jokes serve as a model for (satirical) heroisation, but why and how does someone become „the new Chuck Norris”? What frame of reference does this create and how is it adapted in the case of a societal conflict? These questions are addressed based on recent examples of digital humor.
Paper long abstract:
Chuck Norris jokes – or „Chuck Norris Facts” – have been present in the digital space since 2005. They present a satirically exaggerated version of the tough guy character played by the American actor in popular action movies. Chuck Norris as the hero of the joke cycle is invincible – no man, animal or disease can harm him, and even death itself is afraid of him.
Chuck Norris jokes and memes are known worldwide – translated to different languages, and to some extent, also adapted to local circumstances. But they also serve as a model for (satirical) heroisation. Various people are referred to (occasionally or regularly) as „the new Chuck Norris” in digital communication, and they can also become the hero of jokes and memes formerly connected to Chuck Norris. Among them, action movie actors and celebrities can be found as well as political leaders like Vladimir Putin or most recently Volodimir Zelensky.
But what are the heroic attributes of Chuck Norris, and what does it mean to be „the new Chuck Norris”? Is this even a positive category? What frame of reference does this create and how is it adapted in the case of a societal conflict? I try to address these questions based on recent textual and multimodal examples of digital humor.
Marju Raju (Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre)
Paper short abstract:
Estonian FB meme page Daily Poirot was created in 2017 by the author of this presentation mostly for entertaining close friends and family members, but has gained a larger audience during the years. Reactions of the followers (approx 1300) reflect the importance of different current topics.
Paper long abstract:
Agatha Christy's detective Hercule Poirot is widely known character mostly due to the great performance by David Suchet. Estonian FB meme page Daily Poirot (DP) was created in 2017 by the author of this presentation mostly for entertaining close friends and family members, but has gained a larger audience during the years. The memes consist mostly of print-screens from TV show with Estonian subtitles paired with new media headlines and/or photos. Reactions, engagement and comments from the followers (approx 1300 registered fans, 36% men) reflect the importance of different current topics in Estonian society. The reach of each post is about 500-1700 people, but only about 10% viewers react to them. DP has clear values like science-based world view, he is pro-choice and has certain political preferences, so the followers with different background may choose to stay anonymous as their social media reactions are visible to everyone. Safer topics like weather, celebrity gossip and Eurovision song contest gain larger amount of post likes and shares.
Ana Banić Grubišić (University of Belgrade)
Paper short abstract:
This paper research digital protest folklore and deals with the social construction and representation of heroes and villains of the contemporary Serbian environmental movement.
Paper long abstract:
This paper deals with the social construction and representation of heroes and villains of the contemporary Serbian environmental movement. In the last few years, growing environmental problems have led to establishment of several informal environmental initiatives and organizations in Serbia. These local environmental initiatives and organizations with a strong social media presence are dedicated to raising environmental awareness among the general public and protesting against the privatization of natural resources and the opening of new factories and new mining sites, which inevitably lead to environmental pollution. Various practices of digital activism play a significant role in informing and mobilizing concerned citizens. Analytical data is collected from 2017 to 2022. on social networking platforms and consist of various expressive materials created and shared digitally. One of the primary themes that pervade numerous and genre-diverse units of digital protest folklore of eco-activism in Serbia is we : them dichotomy, i.e., people/folk vs. private investors and local politicians. For example, in internet memes and other pieces of photoshoplore, environmental activists are depicted as new folk heroes. At the same time, domestic and foreign private investors, politicians, and local authorities are perceived as the main culprits for a (potential) environmental disaster. The main objective of this paper is to explain these processes of heroization and villainization in the digital eco-activism practices in postsocialist Serbia. Also, this paper tries to point out the importance of visual communication, as well as the role of humor, satire, and parody in the creation of new folk heroes.
Tero Ahlgren (University of Turku)
Paper short abstract:
Social media has played a part in recent attacks on government institutions in USA and Brazil. Both events share the narrative of corrupted government hiding falsified elections results. I focus on the vernacular authority of social media and how it can motivate the large and even violent protests.
Paper long abstract:
Large groups of people can be inspired to take on governmental institutions, even physically assault and damage governmental buildings, via the use of social media. Just at the start of this year, this culminated in Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaros supporters storming among others the National Congress of Brazil. This event was reminiscent of the Capitol attack in Washington D.C, USA, on 6th of January 2021. Even more so that in both of the cases the key motivation was to bring in to light the alleged corruption in the government with its falsified results of the presidential elections just held. This narrative of the false elections and the threat to democracy bolstered the sense of some, the participants, of being the frontline in the fight for democracy, while others viewed them as the out rigth enemy of the democratic system. In both cases the former presidents, Bolsonaro and Trump, were seen as encouraging the protesters, even if condemming the extent of the events afterwards. Social media also presents individual characters that continue to be part of the media sphere even in the aftermath of the events, one example being the QAnon Shaman that was one the spearhead figures, or atleast one of the more noticeable figures of the Capitol attack. I’m interested in how content shared via social media, and the vernacular authority of that content, is used and how that builds up to mass protest events. What creates the sense of ”defenders of democracy” and their enemy.