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Social Media, 'Cancel Culture,' & the Politics of Shame

Sat, September 17, 10:00 to 11:30am, TBA

Abstract

While there is disagreement over the severity of the “cancel culture epidemic,” scholars and practitioners largely agree that digital technologies like social media change are changing the dynamics of public shaming in ways that can easily blur the line between accountability and harassment. But in framing these discussions in terms of the desirability of online public shaming—whether we shame for the right reasons or not—I argue we largely overlook the question of whether online public shaming works. While there is a consensus that the scale of social media is to blame for "cancel culture run amok," I argue instead that public shaming's success depends on social organization.

Drawing from the work of Christina Tarnopolsky, among others, I argue that public shaming is effective—and democratically valuable—when it occurs within a specific context: a well-defined, self-conscious community of peers. With this in mind, I then analyze a number of high-profile cases of online public shaming on Twitter—especially those of Amy Cooper and Justine Sacco—to show how the platform’s lack of community ties led these “cancellations” to be ineffective. Online public shaming often fails, in other words, not because of the scale but because of the lack of community on many high-profile social media platforms. I conclude the paper by turning to examples from Reddit and Wikipedia to suggest how we might design digital platforms that afford more effective public shaming campaigns.

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