Sammendrag
In this thesis I explore how digitally mediated shaming has manifested during the coronavirus pandemic in the United States. Focusing on what I perceive to a distinctly American phenomenon: the politicisation and antagonistic nature of facemask disputes which have been recorded in semi-public, commercial spaces and subsequently uploaded and circulated in digital networks. In order to unfold the events, I have performed close, textual analysis of the audio-visual texts, in addition to their paratextual presentation and user-generated engagement on Twitter. While I do not suggest that newer, screen-based technologies are an exclusive cause of these modern, digitalised forms of public shaming, lowered access to material conditions, like phones with integrated cameras and instant internet connections, undoubtedly help facilitate the practice. Furthermore, I posit that the camera phone takes on a distinct and active role in shaping the recorded events and becomes a means for ‘ordinary’ people to weaponise visibility as a means to leverage power in social interactions with strangers. Recorded events and their subjects are subsequently distributed in affective networks where they are subjected to condemnation and punitive action by vast audiences. This is done through a hybridisation of sensational communicative styles, activism and vigilante practices. By observing the minutiae of these video recordings and their subsequent circulation and reception on Twitter, I claim that the texts provide invaluable insight into the negotiations of the everyday socio-political struggle of a fragmented, American public, whose failure to reach forms of cohesion is threatening the very foundation of democratic processes in modern society.
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