Suchergebnisse

Background. This thesis explores digital public reactions to terrorist attacks, and specifically how discourses on terrorism become articulated on social media. The overarching aim of the thesis is to explore the reactions spread on social media following attacks, and how these digital platforms may alter or transform the ways in which such attacks are collectively understood and interpreted. It explores issues relating to Twitter as a platform for backchannel meaning making, for downplaying fear mongering practices, the ways different terrorist attacks become co-articulated, as well as the divided attention of networked publics during terror-related events. Methods. The thesis is made up of four individual papers, each exploring digital reactions to different terrorist attacks on Twitter. The cases include the Utøya massacre in Norway 2011, the Stockholm lorry attack in 2017, 12 different attacks occurring between 2015-2017 in Europe (multi-case study), and the terrorist attack in Sinai, Egypt and the subsequent false alarm about a suspected terrorist attack on Oxford Street Underground station in London, UK, occuring on the same day in 2017. A combination of methods used in this thesis include network analysis of hashtag co-occurrences, and thematic analysis of prominent themes in tweets, using discourse theory as its analytical framework in the qualitative readings. Results. The findings of the thesis suggest that discourses on terrorism on social media are shaped by the specific logics present in the connective action of networked publics. The political action of digital audiences is performed in a personalised way that shapes terrorism discourse. How terrorism is understood is influenced by collective ideas of how societies become affected by trauma or resilience, and digital communities engage in downplaying or amplifying practices for such articulations. Prevailing spatial and temporal contexts alsomatter for the ways in which terrorist attacks are understood and reimagined. The (real or perceived) closeness to the attack, the interrelatedness of attacks, and aspects of virality of information plays a role in how terror discourses become articulated in digital spaces. Conclusion. This thesis makes theoretical and empirical contributions to the understanding of how digital audiences articulate terrorism discourse in the aftermath of terrorist attacks. It stresses that emotive personal expressions on social media should be understood as a highly politicised reaction, relating to a vast range of issues, such as immigration control, nationalism, or an increased prevalence of everyday racism. On social media, audiences may both amplify or downplay attention to specific terrorist attacks, and, as such, may choose to provide (or not provide) attention. Social media may thus function as a space for everyday political action in times of terrorism.

We live in an increasingly digitised society. In an age of digital identities, rapid developments in Artificial Intelligence and ever more sophisticated software available, our methods for researching digital media must be flexible and adaptable. This book will help you to understand why researchers in this field choose and use particular research methods, equipping you to put these methods into practice across the whole range of undergraduate media courses. This book shows you how research methods can help us to make sense of the myriad of information we encounter online every day, from Tiktok influencers to viral Twitter posts. Complete with case studies in each chapter, the book covers both well-established methods, such as network analysis, and cutting-edge ones, such as interface analysis. It provides a crucial foundation for research in digital media, demonstrating the scope and potential of these tools. The book adopts an easy-to-navigate structure, taking you through specific methods in a systematic way. It shows you examples of classic uses of each method, and directs you towards further resources after each chapter.

Amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, TikTok has emerged as a pivotal platform, where creators utilize its compressed video formats to mediate the harsh realities of war zones. In this article, we examine 97 videos produced by 12 Ukrainian and Russian TikTok creators in response to the 2022 war in Ukraine. We focus on the playful embodiment of trauma using digital ethnography, analyzing creators' practices and their interconnected memetic communication on TikTok. We identified the use of play through three dynamic practices where platforms, bodies, and trauma converge: (1) the utilization of POV (point-of-view) aesthetic in shareable templates to convey the realities of war from engaging first-person perspectives; (2) the incorporation of dance as a means of embodied creative expression and amplification of trauma; and (3) the harnessing of platform features to facilitate whimsical dialogues with followers about life under war. We argue that playfulness is entrenched in and enacted through platform vernacular modes, driving creators to forge communal ties during adversities and shape the ongoing representation of trauma and its accelerated visibility in digital spaces. We present the concept of playful trauma as a framework for understanding the structural dissonance that arises when creators utilize their bodies alongside platform-specific humorous, ironic, or subversive dialects to perform and amplify the gravity of trauma. This tension provides a unique space for creators to convert their shared experiences of grief and resilience into participatory coping mechanisms. In doing so, they subject and harness their playful platformed body as both the medium and the message, documenting injustices, bearing witness, and galvanizing crowds into action during times of war.