beauty saves the world: fandom, art, and politics for propaganda prosumerism
TRANSCRIPT
fandom, art, & politicsfor propaganda prosumerism
John Carter McKnightfan studies network Conference
September 2014
“beauty saves the world” is a case study of the “Natalia Poklonskaya” meme from early 2014
in which a Crimean prosecutor becamean object of fandom and propaganda
it’s a case study of fan practicesas a transformational element in political imagery –
fan art and memes enabling “propaganda prosumerism” -
this case raises questions for our understanding of the borderlands between fan studies & political communication -
and challenges notions that use of the tools of pop culture = depoliticization
suggesting rather that politics, pop culture, and fannish practices are complementary and sometimes inseparable
a group of digital items sharing common characteristics of content, form, or stance
created with awareness of each other
circulated, imitated, or transformed via internet by many users
(“socially constructed public discourses”)
Shifman, L. (2014) Memes in Digital Culture, MIT Press
“whereas the viral comprises a single cultural unit…that propagates in many copies, an internet meme is always a collection of texts.”
one of the messages of the meme is the value of participatory culture itself –
this has major (under-examined) implications for the study of conservative memes.
some memes are readily understandable,
while others require extensive literacy in a range of cultural vernaculars.
media scholarship sees “depoliticization” as a natural outcome of memes’ reliance on a pop-culture vocabulary -
yet the Poklonskaya story suggests that depoliticization led to a virality that in turn enabled greater weight and spread to propaganda uses
meanwhile, Poklonskaya continues as a political actor – and a meta-commenter on her own memefication
and is thus simultaneouslydepoliticized celebrity,raw material for memes,and controversial political actor
“internet memes assume a new role in deliberative processes, providing a polyvocal ‘meeting space’ between opposing camps”Shifman, L. (2014) Memes in Digital Culture, MIT Press
if so, that raises questions about the borderlands between fan studies and political communications -
can fan studies help in analyzing political uses of social media?(how) are fannish practices used in political discourse?can nationalisms/ideologies be read as fandoms?how are political figures like objects of (anti-) fandom?
coming soon
#indyref: participatory democracy and the values of meme culture“Not Your Waifu, Huilo: Contested Masculinity in Social Media Imagery of Vladimir Putin as (Anti-) Celebrity” Otherness & Transgression In Celebrity & Fan Cultures – Aarhus University, November 2014
thank you!
@john_carter
johncartermcknight.com
lancaster.academia.edu/JohnCarterMcKnight