Ambient affiliation, misinformation and moral panic: Negotiating social bonds in a YouTube internet hoax

Abstract

Deceptive communication and misinformation are crucial issues that are currently having a significant impact on social life. Parallel to the important work of identifying misinformation on digital platforms is understanding why such material proliferates. One approach to answering this question is to attempt to understand the values that are being targeted by misinformation as a means of interpreting the underlying social bonds that are at stake. This study examines the kinds of social bonds that are communed around and contested in a corpus of YouTube video comments about the viral internet hoax ‘The Momo Challenge’. A social semiotic approach to ‘ambient affiliation’ (Zappavigna, 2011) is used to investigate how these bonds are negotiated in this digital discourse. This approach involves establishing the types of personae (for instance Moralisers, Myth Spreaders and Connoisseurs) who were negotiating meaning in the comments on the basis of the values that they recurrently shared, deferred or disputed. The analysis suggests that, in addition to concern over whether Momo was real and dangerous, there was a deeper moral panic about parenting in the digital age and the legitimacy of institutions such as schools and media as brokers of knowledge.

Conspiracy Theories and White Supremacy on YouTube: Exploring Affiliation and Legitimation Strategies in YouTube Comments

“…For example, this system was originally used to explore affiliation in mass hashtag use on Twitter (Zappavigna, 2018). It has also previously been applied to YouTube comments in areas, such as autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) (Zappavigna, 2021) and internet hoaxes (Inwood & Zappavigna, 2021). The communing affiliation framework is shown in Figure 1, a system network that represents choices in meanings as square brackets (an OR relation) and simultaneous meetings through a brace (and AND relation).…”

Fake news on the internet: a literature review, synthesis and directions for future research

“…Most existing studies conclude that FNI has significantly negative effects on various aspects of the lives of people and a few believe that FNI has certain positive effects. Specifically, FNI may have potential value in interpreting the underlying social bonds that are at stake (Inwood and Zappavigna, 2021), and it is considered as a critical issue confronting journalism (Tandoc et al. , 2019).…”

“…Additionally, FNI imposes social costs (Allcott and Gentzkow, 2017), destroys honesty and interpersonal trust (Duffy et al, 2020), causes unconscious behaviour (Bastick, 2021;Wani et al, 2021) and leads to information panic (Carlson, 2020;Creech and Roessner, 2019). However, FNI may have the potential to interpret the underlying social bonds that are at stake (Inwood and Zappavigna, 2021).…”

“…, 2021) and leads to information panic (Carlson, 2020; Creech and Roessner, 2019). However, FNI may have the potential to interpret the underlying social bonds that are at stake (Inwood and Zappavigna, 2021).…”

Truth, Proof, Sleuth: Trust in Direct-to-Consumer DNA Testing and Other Sources of Identity Information among Australian Donor-Conceived People

“…First established in infancy through the (un)reliability of the caretaker, trust represents a kind of social glue that binds relationships (Giddens, 1991;Luhmann, 1988). Scholars have explored relational, affective and embodied aspects of trust (Fotaki, 2014;Newman et al, 2017) including how individuals' propensity to believe (mis)information is shaped by the social bonds at stake (Inwood and Zappavigna, 2021). In this article, we adopt the conceptualisation of trust outlined by Khodyakov (2007), which encompasses the notions of thick interpersonal trust (e.g.…”