Coloring social change: Humor, politics, and social movements

Abstract

As many social movements demonstrate, humor can serve as an important resource to resist oppression, fight social injustice and bring social change. Existing research has focused on humor’s role within social movements and its positive effects on the free expression of criticism, reduction of fear, communication, mobilization of participants and so on. However, the current literature on the activist use of humor also expresses some reservations about its political efficacy. While humor may steam off the energy necessary to counteract oppression and injustice, other tools of achieving the same political ends have been successfully deployed, primarily social media. Building upon this research, the present case study explores the 2016 Macedonian social movement called the Colorful Revolution. In particular, through the analysis of social media and activists’ reflection on the political use of humor, this case study examines how on-line humor contributed to the emergence and development of the movement. Factoring in activists’ opinions on the role of humor in society and especially in movements, while also paying attention to the role of social media, this case study tends to re-interpret the role of humor in the totality of the actions and circumstances underpinning the development of a social movement.

#presidentspartingwords at a Critical Juncture: Reclaiming the Autonomous Subject in Social Media Discourse on Coronavirus in Belarus

“…While the question about the political efficacy of the protests, which may have been facilitated by the #presidentspartingwords discourse, lies outside the focus of this study, a word of caution is warranted here to avoid the oversimplification of the political implications of social media activism. A robust, and growing, research has recognized the potential of humor, irony, and parody—that is, the defining characteristics of ludic activism—to challenge power relations and to expand the repertoire of subversive political action (for review, see Takovski, 2020). Some scholars argue that humor may prove to be particularly effective in authoritarian contexts because, while constituting a relatively low-stakes action on the part of the oppressed, it simultaneously “hijacks the regime's narrative” (Camps-Febrer, 2012, p. 32) and deprives it of the possibility to legitimize its use of force in response to humorous provocations.…”

Have media texts become more humorous?

“…Such humour research has been conducted on various types of discourse. Some researchers have investigated humour in formal discourse (Takovski, 2019;Tsakona, 2009;Urbatsch, 2022) as well as daily conversations (Gibbs et al, 2014;Hay, 2001;Priego-Valverde, 2021). In addition, multimodal discourse has also been employed as linguistic data for humour research (Breazu & Machin, 2022;Calhoun, 2019).…”

“…Calhoun (2019) carried out a multimodal discourse analysis to find out semiotic features of an anti-hegemonic racial comedy in the works of the most-followed person on Vine, a short-form video-sharing platform. Takovski (2019) combined content analysis and interviews to discuss the role of humour in a social movement and concluded that humour prompted free expression and engagement in the movement.…”

Marketing Logics and the Politics of Public Spheres: On Discursive Engineering and Enclosure

“…In particular, social media platforms proved crucial to public and activist efforts to (re)create a public in which criticism of the Gruevski government could circulate. As Biljana Bejkova (2020:222) explains, “new media and social networks provided ‘free zones’ where authorities did not have and could not install control and censorship.” These “free zone” social media publics enabled the popular opposition to organize and to circulate information (see Takovski 2019, cf. Bonilla and Rosa 2015).…”