Zea Szebeni, Ilana Hartikainen, Sophie Schmalenberger, Michael Cole
{"title":"Banana Populism: Exploring the Emotionally Engaging, Authentic, and Memeable Rhetoric of Populist Visual Communication","authors":"Zea Szebeni, Ilana Hartikainen, Sophie Schmalenberger, Michael Cole","doi":"10.1177/20563051251313847","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251313847","url":null,"abstract":"This study conceptualizes “banana populism,” a novel analytical framework to examine how whimsical imagery functions in in contemporary populism. Banana populism utilizes the ordinary—exemplified by the banana—for its ubiquity, inherent humor, and absurdity, transforming these elements into powerful political tools. These articulations effectively mainstream extreme ideologies, invite affective investment from broad publics, and delineate antagonistic frontiers by employing familiar cultural symbols and everyday objects, such as military attire or MAGA hats. Such performative elements not only enhance the authenticity of populist leaders but also make their messages more accessible and emotionally engaging, increasing their appeal and relatability. Furthermore, the memetic nature of banana populism underlines its adaptability and potency on social media, where these performances become part of a participatory and dynamic political discourse. This framework shows how seemingly innocuous visual articulations can profoundly impact political communication and identity formation in contemporary political landscapes.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"53 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143056189","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Emily Godwin, Brittany I. Davidson, Tim Hill, Adam Joinson
{"title":"Internet Memes as Stabilizers of Conspiracy Culture: A Cognitive Anthropological Analysis","authors":"Emily Godwin, Brittany I. Davidson, Tim Hill, Adam Joinson","doi":"10.1177/20563051241306421","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241306421","url":null,"abstract":"Internet memes have emerged as the de facto language of the internet, where standardized memetic templates and characters distill and communicate narratives in simple, shareable formats. While prior research has highlighted their broad appeal as they traverse diverse audiences, their cultural function within online communities has received less attention. To investigate this function, we draw on cognitive anthropological conceptualizations of culture and theorize internet memes as “cultural representations.” We analyze 544 memes shared across two interconnected conspiratorial subreddits about COVID-19 between 2020 and 2022, employing a combination of content and thematic analysis. In doing so, we demonstrate that community members selectively engage with standardized memetic elements that resonate with their “conspiracist worldview.” Specifically, elements conveying the enduring “cultural themes” of Deception, Delusion, and Superiority function as “cultural resources” that stabilize the community’s culture. As such, we make three contributions. First, by theorizing internet memes as cultural representations, we demonstrate their stabilizing cultural function. Second, by showing how internet memes are used in online conspiratorial communities, we highlight their role in maintaining group cohesion and alleviating contention. Finally, we advance a revised methodological approach for the study of memetic communication.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"60 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143056953","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nathan A. Silver, Miao Feng, Elexis C. Kierstead, Hy Tran, Steven Binns, Sherry Emery, Barbara A. Schillo
{"title":"Twitter (X) and the Commercial Determinants of Health: Characterizing the Most Amplified, Influential, and Connected Voices Driving Twitter Discourse About Tobacco Regulatory Policy From September 2019 to July 2021","authors":"Nathan A. Silver, Miao Feng, Elexis C. Kierstead, Hy Tran, Steven Binns, Sherry Emery, Barbara A. Schillo","doi":"10.1177/20563051251314611","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251314611","url":null,"abstract":"Tobacco content on Twitter (X) generally opposes regulation. Although a near real-time data source of the public’s response to prominent events heightens the allure of extrapolating public sentiment from Twitter content, tobacco policy sentiment on the platform may be more indicative of industry-affiliated top users. We examined 2 years of tobacco policy discussion on Twitter (X) at the user level ( N = 3,159,807 posts) from September 2019 to July 2021. We sampled the 100 most followed, amplified (retweets), influential (H index), and connected (betweenness centrality) users at three different time periods: pre-COVID (September 2019 to February 2020), COVID lockdown (March 2020 to March 2021), and post vaccine rollout (April to July 2021) to characterize top users. The Louvain method was used to partition users into communities based on retweet behavior. The 100 most amplified users received between 48% and 71% of all retweets across time periods, with e-cigarette advocates dominating the most amplified (64.7%), influential (38.4%) and connected users (42.1%). The vast majority of interaction took place in communities dominated by e-cigarette advocates, but only reaching 2.5% to 8.2% of users. We identified 58 tobacco policy top users who had 1,000 or more total retweets and were among the top 100 for any of our influence metrics at more than one time period. Among top users, 50 were e-cigarette advocates, and 24 had quantifiable ties to the tobacco industry. Practitioners and researchers should be wary of mischaracterizing industry public relations on social media as public sentiment.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"94 7 Suppl 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143056190","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Adalia Y. H. Goh, Andree Hartanto, K. T. A. Sandeeshwara Kasturiratna, Nadyanna M. Majeed
{"title":"No Consistent Evidence for Between- and Within-Person Associations Between Objective Social Media Screen Time and Body Image Dissatisfaction: Insights From a Daily Diary Study","authors":"Adalia Y. H. Goh, Andree Hartanto, K. T. A. Sandeeshwara Kasturiratna, Nadyanna M. Majeed","doi":"10.1177/20563051251313855","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251313855","url":null,"abstract":"With the abundance of social media content that promotes unrealistic beauty standards, there are growing concerns about the potential negative impact of social media use on body image satisfaction. While some studies highlight negative associations, others present null effects, pointing to methodological limitations like biased and unreliable self-reported screen time measures and a focus on singular platforms. Addressing these gaps, our study employed a daily diary method to objectively measure social media screen time across six major platforms ( Twitter, Reddit, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook), alongside daily body image dissatisfaction among 252 young adults ( M<jats:sub>age</jats:sub> = 21.67 years, 67.77% female) over 7 days. Through multilevel modeling, our analysis revealed no significant within- or between-person associations between social media screen time and body image dissatisfaction, a finding consistent across all platforms. In addition, the lack of association between social media screen time and body image dissatisfaction was consistent across several exploratory moderators such as sex, self-esteem, and perfectionistic self-presentation. The current study did not find strong evidence supporting the concerns surrounding the potential detrimental link between social media screen time and body image dissatisfaction.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"33 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143026652","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Toxic Communication on TikTok: Sigma Masculinities and Gendered Disinformation","authors":"Samuel Tanner, François Gillardin","doi":"10.1177/20563051251313844","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251313844","url":null,"abstract":"A growing body of research highlights digital platforms like TikTok’s pivotal role in shaping meaning for their users, particularly regarding gender perceptions. With TikTok increasingly serving as a search engine for teens, understanding how opinions are formed necessitates examining online content and interactions. Our article focuses on the construction of masculinity and gender dynamics with sigma videos on TikTok, emphasizing the digital practices that foster toxic communication. We define toxic communication as the deliberate framing and intensification of gender relations through the lens of male control and domination, alongside the denigration, devaluation, or defamation of feminine and non-binary identities associated with hegemonic masculinity. Adopting a socio-technical approach, we utilize a digital qualitative method of immersive observation to collect and analyze videos, posts, hashtags, and gender-related content. Our findings reveal that sigma toxic communication manifests in a spectrum ranging from subtle humor to explicit violence. This diversity of content functions as a “ready-to-think” framework, potentially appealing to a wide range of men across varying tastes, ages, and attitudes toward gender while perpetuating narratives that reflect and reinforce entrenched patterns of male dominance.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"38 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-01-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143026653","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“(Virtuous) Wives Don’t Have Anything to Hide”: Understanding Digital Privacy Perceptions and Behavior of Married Women in Rural India","authors":"Debjani Chakraborty, Chhavi Garg","doi":"10.1177/20563051251313665","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251313665","url":null,"abstract":"This study explores digital privacy perceptions and behaviors among married women in rural India, a rapidly expanding demographic of mobile media and Internet users in the Global South. This ethnographic study found that women’s experience of privacy entails balancing between norms related to “hide” and “having nothing to hide.” Specifically, conflicting practices of avoiding online visibility while sharing passwords and accounts with family members exist to conform to their expected gender performance. The study highlights the dual nature of privacy practices that relate to the horizontal dimensions of privacy among the study participants. Limited digital literacy levels affect their perception of privacy, with vertical dimensions absent from the discussions.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"30 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-01-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142988883","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Oscillation Between Resist and to Not? Users’ Folk Theories and Resistance to Algorithmic Curation on Douyin","authors":"Hui Lin","doi":"10.1177/20563051251313610","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251313610","url":null,"abstract":"An increasing number of users are aware of algorithmically driven content curation. Yet, while numerous studies have examined how people understand algorithmic power, there are insufficient numbers of studies about how people respond to and resist algorithmic curation in different sociocultural contexts. This article adopts a walk-through method and a diary-interview approach with 31 participants to investigate user resistance to algorithmic curation in different sociocultural circumstances. Drawing on the theoretical framework of folk theories and user resistance to algorithms, this study reveals a paradox in users’ algorithmic awareness and resistance behaviors: although respondents said they expressed annoyance with algorithmic simplification, commercial exploitation, and political agenda-setting, they often behaved in ways that contradict those claims with oscillated resistance to algorithmic curation. This study found that this paradox of resistance not only reflects users’ efforts to reconcile sociocultural needs with digital irritations caused by algorithmic mismatches but also arises from a sense of digital resignation in response to the platform’s strict regulations and censorship. Thus, this article argues that although people espouse folk theories as resources to resist algorithmic curation in different sociocultural contexts, most of their resistance behaviors remain constrained within the dominant use of technological affordances, which largely functions as a process of continuous negotiation rather than a subversive force capable of disrupting the ideological power relations embedded in algorithm-driven platforms.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"30 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-01-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142988832","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From Volunteerism to Corporatization: Analyzing Participation in the 2015 and 2023 Reddit Blackouts","authors":"Andreas Schmitz, Mattia Samory","doi":"10.1177/20563051241309497","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241309497","url":null,"abstract":"Reddit, one of the largest global social media platforms, has undergone significant transformations since its inception in 2005. From a loosely structured, niche platform to a globally recognized company with a standardized and regulated governance system, Reddit’s evolution has been marked by a shift in the power dynamics between its owners, moderators, and users. 2015 and 2023 were marked by the occurrence of two prominent protests, termed “blackouts.” Moderators of numerous subreddits, though not all, disabled public access to their subreddits, thereby protesting the company’s policies and policy changes and challenging the company’s endeavors to exert further control over the platform. Drawing on Bourdieusian theory and relational methodology, we establish a computational social science approach to investigate the structural causes behind the two blackouts and contextualize the differences between them. We argue that these blackouts signify growing tensions within the socio-technical space of Reddit and an ongoing political, cultural, and economic reconfiguration of its power structure and political economy.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"25 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-01-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142987529","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Digital (Dis)connection, Agency, and Imagination in a French Rural Community","authors":"Fabienne Darling-Wolf","doi":"10.1177/20563051241311962","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241311962","url":null,"abstract":"Common to scholarly analyses of the “digital revolution” is their inclination to deploy technology—the platforms, their affordances, the virtual spaces they create—as the main entry into evaluations of digital media’s impact on socio-cultural organization. While certainly useful in helping us understand the dynamics of digital practices and spaces, these narratives often fail to provide a fuller portrait of individuals’ broader relationship to the technological world shaped not (only) by their digital media use (or lack thereof) but also by their mere awareness of the existence of digital tools. Drawing from 14 months of ethnographic fieldwork in as small rural community in France, this project starts sketching such a portrait. Inspired by theories of mediation that encourage us to “rediscover” people as a methodological starting point by moving our focus from object (media) to process (mediation), it explores how residents experience, enjoy, resist, and negotiate the impact of digital and social media on the community’s culture, identity, and social organization.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142974726","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Closing the Door to Remain Open: The Politics of Openness and the Practices of Strategic Closure in the Fediverse","authors":"Jamie A. Theophilos","doi":"10.1177/20563051241308323","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241308323","url":null,"abstract":"In early 2023, Meta announced that its new microblogging platform, Threads, would join the Fediverse, a network of free, open-source social media platforms. This decision created a rift within the Fediverse, with some users supporting Meta’s integration while others strongly opposing it. This research explores the practices and discourses of the latter group—users, developers, and server administrators—who aim to build a safer and more autonomous “free Fediverse.” By framing the Free Fediverse as a digital counterpublic, this article introduces the concept of “strategic closure” to illustrate how these actors resist corporate capture and maintain a safer online environment. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of sociomateriality and the politics of openness, my analysis highlights the entanglement between discursive and material aspects of these counterpublic practices. This study contributes to the broader discourse on alternative social media politics, emphasizing the ongoing negotiations between openness, safety, and technological design, and offers insights from Science and Technology Studies (STS) for understanding counterpublics in the age of Big Tech.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"94 37 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2024-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142879632","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}