Pub Date : 2023-11-06DOI: 10.1177/01968599231210794
Tao Papaioannou, Lee F. Monaghan
This article examines how affect, as community connectedness, is strategized by an influencer with her audiences when re-framing weight-related stigma and disordered eating online. An analysis of plus-size model Tess Holliday's Instagram posts ( n = 212) identifies four main frames: (1) disclosing experiences of body-shaming/blaming/stigmatization as “our pain,” (2) collaborating with fellow influencers in de-stigmatizing disordered eating among (fat) women, (3) engaging audiences in validating body diversity, and (4) defending their community against hate comments. The analysis foregrounds the action of emotion when exploring affective community-building strategies and project stigma in a context depicted as “authentic” and “intimate.” The article concludes by noting some limitations with influencer strategies and this study before offering suggestions for future research.
{"title":"Affect as Community Connectedness: Re-Framing Weight-Related Stigma and Disordered Eating Online","authors":"Tao Papaioannou, Lee F. Monaghan","doi":"10.1177/01968599231210794","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01968599231210794","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines how affect, as community connectedness, is strategized by an influencer with her audiences when re-framing weight-related stigma and disordered eating online. An analysis of plus-size model Tess Holliday's Instagram posts ( n = 212) identifies four main frames: (1) disclosing experiences of body-shaming/blaming/stigmatization as “our pain,” (2) collaborating with fellow influencers in de-stigmatizing disordered eating among (fat) women, (3) engaging audiences in validating body diversity, and (4) defending their community against hate comments. The analysis foregrounds the action of emotion when exploring affective community-building strategies and project stigma in a context depicted as “authentic” and “intimate.” The article concludes by noting some limitations with influencer strategies and this study before offering suggestions for future research.","PeriodicalId":45677,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication Inquiry","volume":"47 3","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135682317","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper seeks to contribute to the growing literature on sexual harassment of female journalists from the Global South more broadly and Southern Africa in particular. We selected three Southern African countries for this investigation: Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Namibia. Much of sub-Saharan Africa still experiences patriarchy that has proven to be resilient with misogynistic residue. Theoretically, the study utilizes the new institutionalism theory that deals with the socio-political environment within which news organizations are embedded and the postcolonial feminist theory. Primarily, this study uses the qualitative method of semi-structured interviews with 15 journalists across the three countries and offers a thematic analysis of the gathered data. Female journalists’ responses in the selected three countries reveal that they are facing sexual harassment in various forms including, both verbally and physically. The sexual harassment that female journalists are subjected to, we argue, is in part a result of inadequate policies and media regulatory bodies that can curb harassment.
{"title":"Contending with Sexual Harassment: A Study of Southern African Female Journalists’ Experiences","authors":"Mbongeni Jonny Msimanga, Lungile Augustine Tshuma, Trust Matsilele, Sadia Jamil","doi":"10.1177/01968599231210790","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01968599231210790","url":null,"abstract":"This paper seeks to contribute to the growing literature on sexual harassment of female journalists from the Global South more broadly and Southern Africa in particular. We selected three Southern African countries for this investigation: Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Namibia. Much of sub-Saharan Africa still experiences patriarchy that has proven to be resilient with misogynistic residue. Theoretically, the study utilizes the new institutionalism theory that deals with the socio-political environment within which news organizations are embedded and the postcolonial feminist theory. Primarily, this study uses the qualitative method of semi-structured interviews with 15 journalists across the three countries and offers a thematic analysis of the gathered data. Female journalists’ responses in the selected three countries reveal that they are facing sexual harassment in various forms including, both verbally and physically. The sexual harassment that female journalists are subjected to, we argue, is in part a result of inadequate policies and media regulatory bodies that can curb harassment.","PeriodicalId":45677,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication Inquiry","volume":"38 6","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135868751","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-11-03DOI: 10.1177/01968599231211256
Peter Bryant
Participation in zine-making is enacted through a series of inter-linked making practices and intentions, constructed within both personal and interpersonal frames, and shared with others in different ways. Zines are catalysts for network formation within a cultural or sub-cultural community, with zine-makers sharing experiences, resources, and creativity to inform and associate with the community. Drawing on the constructivist grounded theory analysis of thirty-four semi-structured email interviews with zine-makers, this study sought to theorize a transdisciplinary understanding of the potential role zine-making communities play in the decision by an individual to participate in zine-making and how that participation was defined, enacted, and enculturated through zine-making. Using a constructivist grounded analysis, a model of participation was developed that defined and explored the bounded boundaryless of the zine-making communitas. In these spaces, members of the communitas deliberately transitioned into or through liminality and found affiliation and communion through engaging in and sharing the processes involved in zine-making (such as construction, distribution, and writing). Within this semi-fragile zine-making community, smaller sub-spaces were formed through engagement or affiliation with different interpretations and enactions of these processes, manifest in the production of different zine typologies and the creation and engagement with readership or circulation networks.
{"title":"The Enculturation of Liminality in Zine-Making: Acts of Associative Commonality That Enable Participation in a Media-Making Communitas","authors":"Peter Bryant","doi":"10.1177/01968599231211256","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01968599231211256","url":null,"abstract":"Participation in zine-making is enacted through a series of inter-linked making practices and intentions, constructed within both personal and interpersonal frames, and shared with others in different ways. Zines are catalysts for network formation within a cultural or sub-cultural community, with zine-makers sharing experiences, resources, and creativity to inform and associate with the community. Drawing on the constructivist grounded theory analysis of thirty-four semi-structured email interviews with zine-makers, this study sought to theorize a transdisciplinary understanding of the potential role zine-making communities play in the decision by an individual to participate in zine-making and how that participation was defined, enacted, and enculturated through zine-making. Using a constructivist grounded analysis, a model of participation was developed that defined and explored the bounded boundaryless of the zine-making communitas. In these spaces, members of the communitas deliberately transitioned into or through liminality and found affiliation and communion through engaging in and sharing the processes involved in zine-making (such as construction, distribution, and writing). Within this semi-fragile zine-making community, smaller sub-spaces were formed through engagement or affiliation with different interpretations and enactions of these processes, manifest in the production of different zine typologies and the creation and engagement with readership or circulation networks.","PeriodicalId":45677,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication Inquiry","volume":"38 3","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135868753","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-11-02DOI: 10.1177/01968599231210803
Nana Kwame Osei Fordjour
This study takes a case study approach to conduct a frame analysis of the press releases sent out by the Governor of New Mexico, Michelle Lujan Grisham, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study argues that the governor saliently employed feminine language frames in her press releases while using masculine language frames sparingly in a feminine way, which I attribute to the context of the pandemic as well as the culture of her state. The findings are relevant considering the changing political climate and the then-novel nature of the pandemic. I also discuss the broader implications of the results on health crisis communication.
{"title":"Press Releases, Politics, and Gendered Language Frames: An Analysis of Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham During the COVID-19 Pandemic","authors":"Nana Kwame Osei Fordjour","doi":"10.1177/01968599231210803","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01968599231210803","url":null,"abstract":"This study takes a case study approach to conduct a frame analysis of the press releases sent out by the Governor of New Mexico, Michelle Lujan Grisham, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study argues that the governor saliently employed feminine language frames in her press releases while using masculine language frames sparingly in a feminine way, which I attribute to the context of the pandemic as well as the culture of her state. The findings are relevant considering the changing political climate and the then-novel nature of the pandemic. I also discuss the broader implications of the results on health crisis communication.","PeriodicalId":45677,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication Inquiry","volume":"15 4","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135974692","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-11-01DOI: 10.1177/01968599231210776
Mohammed Madouh, K. Hazel Kwon
This study conceptualizes dark web social networks (DWSNs) through the lens of media ecology theory. We synthesize existing literature to problematize a lack of understanding of DWSNs as a communicatively organizing system. The discussion then focuses on how DWSNs complement, compete, and hybridize with surface web social networks (SWSNs). This Interaction shapes DWSNs as communities of practice that both serve and evolve with the communicative and informational needs of their users. We introduce and elaborate two media-ecological concepts of DWSNs: (1) a medium that has become a message of antithesis to Web 2.0 and (2) an organism that has coevolved with SWSNs. An empirical indicator to explicate these two concepts is The Hub, one of the long-lasting DWSNs. The Hub serves as an example to juxtapose DWSNs with SWSNs, with a focus on their intermedia relationship, and characterize the symbiosis between DWSNs as hosts and their users as living organisms.
{"title":"Evolving in the Shadows: A Media Ecology Study of Dark Web Social Networks","authors":"Mohammed Madouh, K. Hazel Kwon","doi":"10.1177/01968599231210776","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01968599231210776","url":null,"abstract":"This study conceptualizes dark web social networks (DWSNs) through the lens of media ecology theory. We synthesize existing literature to problematize a lack of understanding of DWSNs as a communicatively organizing system. The discussion then focuses on how DWSNs complement, compete, and hybridize with surface web social networks (SWSNs). This Interaction shapes DWSNs as communities of practice that both serve and evolve with the communicative and informational needs of their users. We introduce and elaborate two media-ecological concepts of DWSNs: (1) a medium that has become a message of antithesis to Web 2.0 and (2) an organism that has coevolved with SWSNs. An empirical indicator to explicate these two concepts is The Hub, one of the long-lasting DWSNs. The Hub serves as an example to juxtapose DWSNs with SWSNs, with a focus on their intermedia relationship, and characterize the symbiosis between DWSNs as hosts and their users as living organisms.","PeriodicalId":45677,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication Inquiry","volume":"127 2","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135371965","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-30DOI: 10.1177/01968599231210764
Miriam Berg
This study examines the perceptions of authenticity among rural women in the village of Büyükkarabag, located in western Türkiye, in their engagement with the popular Turkish television program Müge Anlı ile Tatlı Sert (commonly known as the Müge Anlı Show). Drawing on social identity theory, the paper explores the concept of authenticity and its connection to local values and beliefs, including class, gender roles, honour, and family values. Ethnographic methods such as informal conversations, structured and unstructured interviews, and participant observations were employed to gain insights into the experiences of 40 adult women villagers during the summer and autumn of 2022. The findings of this study reveal that rural women, spanning different generations, perceive authenticity in their engagement with the Müge Anlı Show through the lens of their local values and beliefs. The show and its host are regarded as providing a voice to the voiceless, and upholding conservative Turkish values, with acts such as crime, adultery, and other illicit behavior seen as indicators of moral decay. However, there are notable generational differences in how authenticity is interpreted. Younger women view the show as challenging societal norms and addressing broader social issues, while older women emphasize the show's role in exposing societal wrongs and reinforcing traditional gender roles.
本研究考察了位于土耳其西部基耶西部的b yy kkarabag村的农村妇女在参与土耳其流行电视节目《m ge anlyi ile tatlyi Sert》(俗称《m ge anlyi Show》)时对真实性的看法。借助社会认同理论，本文探讨了真实性的概念及其与当地价值观和信仰的联系，包括阶级、性别角色、荣誉和家庭价值观。采用非正式谈话、结构化和非结构化访谈以及参与者观察等民族志方法，深入了解了40名成年女性村民在2022年夏秋两季的经历。本研究的结果表明，不同世代的农村妇女通过其当地价值观和信仰的视角，在参与葛安利秀时感知真实性。这个节目和它的主持人被认为是为没有发言权的人提供了一个声音，并维护了保守的土耳其价值观，犯罪、通奸和其他非法行为被视为道德败坏的标志。然而，在如何解释真实性方面存在显著的代际差异。年轻女性认为这部剧挑战了社会规范，解决了更广泛的社会问题，而年长女性则强调这部剧在揭露社会错误和强化传统性别角色方面的作用。
{"title":"Negotiating Authenticity and Social Identity: Rural Women's Engagement With <i>Müge Anlı ile Tatlı Sert</i>","authors":"Miriam Berg","doi":"10.1177/01968599231210764","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01968599231210764","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines the perceptions of authenticity among rural women in the village of Büyükkarabag, located in western Türkiye, in their engagement with the popular Turkish television program Müge Anlı ile Tatlı Sert (commonly known as the Müge Anlı Show). Drawing on social identity theory, the paper explores the concept of authenticity and its connection to local values and beliefs, including class, gender roles, honour, and family values. Ethnographic methods such as informal conversations, structured and unstructured interviews, and participant observations were employed to gain insights into the experiences of 40 adult women villagers during the summer and autumn of 2022. The findings of this study reveal that rural women, spanning different generations, perceive authenticity in their engagement with the Müge Anlı Show through the lens of their local values and beliefs. The show and its host are regarded as providing a voice to the voiceless, and upholding conservative Turkish values, with acts such as crime, adultery, and other illicit behavior seen as indicators of moral decay. However, there are notable generational differences in how authenticity is interpreted. Younger women view the show as challenging societal norms and addressing broader social issues, while older women emphasize the show's role in exposing societal wrongs and reinforcing traditional gender roles.","PeriodicalId":45677,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication Inquiry","volume":"165 5","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136069026","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-26DOI: 10.1177/01968599231210763
Brian Michael Goss
{"title":"Book Review: <i>Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism</i> Jeffrey Toobin","authors":"Brian Michael Goss","doi":"10.1177/01968599231210763","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01968599231210763","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45677,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication Inquiry","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135016609","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-22DOI: 10.1177/01968599231188889
Mehrnaz Khanjani
While the term “alternative media” is still contested, these various media have become widespread and consequential in shaping politics and society. This issue of Journal of Communication Inquiry is about alternative media and the change they bring. Alternative media, defined as “news media produced by activists” (Atkinson, 2017) or “critical media” (Fuchs, 2010) are used to seek the goal of change worldwide and they are described to be “the lifeblood of modern social activism” (Atkinson, 2017) and capable of “advancing imagination” and bringing change (Fuchs, 2010). These media are critical of certain forms of domination and work outside the realm of established mass media. Alternative media have a mission in their core, and research seeks how this mission is pursued, adapted and accomplished or failed overtime. In the articles published in this issue we have a variety of perspectives from the impacts of these media on LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/ questioning) movements, and their discourse about injustice, to their autonomous characteristic, and their impacts on shaping celebrity discourses in society. These articles show how alternative media have become inevitable part of today’s social and political realities but still on their way to becoming more influential. In the first article published in this issue, Bandopadhyaya and Kenix argue that the emergence of the Internet and social media have made information within LGBTQ+ movements more visible and acceptable. The 29 activists, interviewed by these researchers, elaborate on social media’s role in amplifying their voice and engaging them with global movements. These activists argue that the Internet and social media platforms have made them more aware about themselves and their identities through reaching out to LGBTQ+members around the world. This research shows how nonmainstream media, and particularly social media, make members of a community more engaged, informed, and aware of their community. Mukherjee, Shah, and Dexter represent an explanatory case study elaborating the current impact that critical alternative media like feminist digital platforms of the global south have. These media can mobilize and dismantle normative discourses that support or normalize social injustice such as gender and sexual violence. This research shows how feminist digital platforms in India push content critical of oppressive systems and advocate contextually relevant social change. This research like the first article also attests the role of alternative media as catalysts for activists and activism. Editorial
{"title":"Alternative Media and Change","authors":"Mehrnaz Khanjani","doi":"10.1177/01968599231188889","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01968599231188889","url":null,"abstract":"While the term “alternative media” is still contested, these various media have become widespread and consequential in shaping politics and society. This issue of Journal of Communication Inquiry is about alternative media and the change they bring. Alternative media, defined as “news media produced by activists” (Atkinson, 2017) or “critical media” (Fuchs, 2010) are used to seek the goal of change worldwide and they are described to be “the lifeblood of modern social activism” (Atkinson, 2017) and capable of “advancing imagination” and bringing change (Fuchs, 2010). These media are critical of certain forms of domination and work outside the realm of established mass media. Alternative media have a mission in their core, and research seeks how this mission is pursued, adapted and accomplished or failed overtime. In the articles published in this issue we have a variety of perspectives from the impacts of these media on LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/ questioning) movements, and their discourse about injustice, to their autonomous characteristic, and their impacts on shaping celebrity discourses in society. These articles show how alternative media have become inevitable part of today’s social and political realities but still on their way to becoming more influential. In the first article published in this issue, Bandopadhyaya and Kenix argue that the emergence of the Internet and social media have made information within LGBTQ+ movements more visible and acceptable. The 29 activists, interviewed by these researchers, elaborate on social media’s role in amplifying their voice and engaging them with global movements. These activists argue that the Internet and social media platforms have made them more aware about themselves and their identities through reaching out to LGBTQ+members around the world. This research shows how nonmainstream media, and particularly social media, make members of a community more engaged, informed, and aware of their community. Mukherjee, Shah, and Dexter represent an explanatory case study elaborating the current impact that critical alternative media like feminist digital platforms of the global south have. These media can mobilize and dismantle normative discourses that support or normalize social injustice such as gender and sexual violence. This research shows how feminist digital platforms in India push content critical of oppressive systems and advocate contextually relevant social change. This research like the first article also attests the role of alternative media as catalysts for activists and activism. Editorial","PeriodicalId":45677,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication Inquiry","volume":"47 1","pages":"343 - 344"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2023-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46501014","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-22DOI: 10.1177/01968599231191352
Frankline Matanji
{"title":"Editor’s Introduction","authors":"Frankline Matanji","doi":"10.1177/01968599231191352","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01968599231191352","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45677,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication Inquiry","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135671648","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-24DOI: 10.1177/01968599231190112
Temple Uwalaka, Sarah Joe, F. Amadi, Confidence Chinedu Amadi
This study explores how Nigerians used social media platforms to mourn and memorialize protesters who were killed during the 2020 EndSARS protests in Nigeria. Data for this study are from tweets (N = 67,678) that were scraped from the hashtags, “#EndSARSMemorial2” and “LekkiMassacre” and online semi-structured interviews (N = 30) with digital activists in Nigeria. Results show that the most frequently tweeted words were “rest in peace,” “heroes,” “who gave the order,” and “#EndSARSMemorial2.” Five themes emerged from the interview data, and they include anger and sympathy, mourning and remembering, connecting in the shared humanity of the deceased, and pledges to be better humans and citizens. The paper shows that high centrality, high density of reciprocity, and low modularity illustrate online mourners’ ability to stimulate commonality through decentralized and loose networks that allow for solidarity building during mourning and the personalization of mourning. Evoking some aspects of crisis network effects theory, this study concludes that when collective mourning occurs, individuals have more reciprocal relationships on a dyadic level and that the network has low modularity as such a network effect occurs when there is a shock that creates uncertainty in the system.
{"title":"Online Activism and Connective Mourning: An Examination of the #EndSARSMemorial Protests in Nigeria","authors":"Temple Uwalaka, Sarah Joe, F. Amadi, Confidence Chinedu Amadi","doi":"10.1177/01968599231190112","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01968599231190112","url":null,"abstract":"This study explores how Nigerians used social media platforms to mourn and memorialize protesters who were killed during the 2020 EndSARS protests in Nigeria. Data for this study are from tweets (N = 67,678) that were scraped from the hashtags, “#EndSARSMemorial2” and “LekkiMassacre” and online semi-structured interviews (N = 30) with digital activists in Nigeria. Results show that the most frequently tweeted words were “rest in peace,” “heroes,” “who gave the order,” and “#EndSARSMemorial2.” Five themes emerged from the interview data, and they include anger and sympathy, mourning and remembering, connecting in the shared humanity of the deceased, and pledges to be better humans and citizens. The paper shows that high centrality, high density of reciprocity, and low modularity illustrate online mourners’ ability to stimulate commonality through decentralized and loose networks that allow for solidarity building during mourning and the personalization of mourning. Evoking some aspects of crisis network effects theory, this study concludes that when collective mourning occurs, individuals have more reciprocal relationships on a dyadic level and that the network has low modularity as such a network effect occurs when there is a shock that creates uncertainty in the system.","PeriodicalId":45677,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communication Inquiry","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2023-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47750028","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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