Overview
- Employs fan studies to examine the dynamics of online polarization
- Examines the role of identity performance in online political discussion
- Outlines the implications of an affective investment in a political perspective
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About this book
This book takes an innovative fan studies approach to investigating one of the most pressing issues of contemporary times: polarization. Drawing on three years of observational data from Facebook political discussions, as well as interviews and survey responses from those heavily engaged in online political debate, Barnes argues a fan-like investment in a political perspective initiates and drives polarization. She calls on us to move beyond the traditional Habermasian approach to political discussion, which privileges the rational and deliberative, and instead focus on how we perform the self. How we behave in these online debates is part of a performance, a performance of self, in which an affective investment in a particular political perspective drives a need to contribute, refute and ‘other’ those opposing. Because this performance stems from an emotional basis, judgments and contributions are often not rational or factual, but rather a form of establishing and defending an identity.
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Keywords
Table of contents (7 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Renne Barnes is senior lecturer in Journalism at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Fandom and Polarization in Online Political Discussion
Book Subtitle: From Pop Culture to Politics
Authors: Renee Barnes
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14039-6
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-14038-9Published: 13 December 2022
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-14041-9Published: 13 December 2023
eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-14039-6Published: 12 December 2022
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIII, 164
Number of Illustrations: 2 b/w illustrations
Topics: Political Communication, Social Media, Popular Culture