Médialab stories: How to align actor network theory and digital methods

Boullier, Dominique

doi:10.1177/2053951718816722

Cited by 8 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…At the same time, I also underlined actor-network theory's methodological limits when trying to satisfyingly 'deploy the content with all its connections' (Latour, 2005: 147). Instead of 'following the actors wherever they lead', I argued that panoramic memes can form useful 'drosophila' (Boullier, 2018) as conveniently replicated actors that can be traced and summed up to reveal patterns in 'fragments of totalisation' as well as offering nodal points for more qualitative situational approaches (Marres, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…What makes /ourguy/ a relevant case study is how it is a quintessentially networked actor that easily lets us ‘attribute some agency to cultural items such as memes’ (Boullier, 2018: 25). In its most networked state, /ourguy/ simultaneously (1) connects an individual user’s value judgement to a public figure, (2) articulates that individual’s idea on what the larger collective’s core beliefs are and (3) invokes reflexive comments by other users, potentially spiralling into a full-fledged debate on /pol/’s perceived identity.…”

Section: Case Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Leskovec et al, 2009;Zannettou et al, 2018), which are often sparser with cultural and theoretical insights. Both have obvious strengths, but here I propose a qualitative-quantitative middle ground by taking up the call for a 'meme tracing' that draws from actor-network theory and digital methods (Boullier, 2018;Rogers, 2013). I argue that, instead of stopping at specific instances of memes, taking them as nodal points with which to trace further associations can be a salient approach to map the ebbs and flows of online groups -especially when leading to 'panoramic' metalanguage that reflexively addresses the collective itself.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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‘Who is /ourguy/?’: Tracing panoramic memes to study the collectivity of 4chan/pol/

Hagen

2022

New Media & Society

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This article explores how Internet memes can be traced as nodal points for the study of online groups. Such ‘meme tracing’ is specifically pertinent to the study of anonymous imageboards like 4chan, where inquiry cannot be easily based on the individual. Drawing from actor-network theory, I argue ‘panoramic memes’ – memes that repeatedly paint a totalising picture of a collective – are especially useful to identify what narratives hold such anonymous groups together. To operationalise this, I conducted a qualitative-quantitative case study of ‘/ourguy/’: a meme used to suggest a certain public figure is representative of the beliefs of an entire group. Using text mining methods, I traced this term to the names of public figures on 4chan’s far-right /pol/ board. This reveals that Donald Trump and Robert Mueller were most commonly proposed as an ‘/ourguy/’ between 2016 and 2020, while the meme was entangled with conspiracy creation and far-right mobilisation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Case Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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‘Who is /ourguy/?’: Tracing panoramic memes to study the collectivity of 4chan/pol/

Hagen

2022

New Media & Society

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“…Selanjutnya untuk mendapatkan gambaran sikap dan posisi radio siaran di tengah pendengar, penelitian ini menerapkan pandangan objektif melalui actor-network theory (ANT) (Blok et al, 2019). ANT dipahami sebagai pendekatan dari paradigma baru penelitian campuran (kuantitatif-kualitatif), dimana ANT mengenal interaksi antar manusia dan elemen non manusia yang terdiri dari tiga asumsi objektif; (1) bahwa asosiasi manusia dan non-manusia diberlakukan dalam praktik, (2) bahwa 'mengikuti aktor' membantu untuk lebih memahami sosial sebagai gerakan asosiasi ulang (reassociate) dan pemasangan ulang (reassembling), (3) bahwa non-manusia menengahi interaksi manusia dan non-manusia (Boullier, 2018). Dalam konteks media massa dalam hal ini radio siaran, ANT diterapkan pada tiga elemen radio, yaitu penyiar, konten, dan teknologi penyiaran (akses) (Michelsen & Krogh, 2017).…”

Section: Pendahuluanunclassified

Ekosistem Radio Siaran Swasta di Pekanbaru pada Era Penyiaran Digital

Setiawan¹,

Handayani²,

Sherlya³

2023

JURKOM

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Penyiaran di Indonesia mengalami kemajuan yang signifikan ditandai dengan migrasi teknologi (analog switch-off/ ASO). Sayangnya, migrasi yang dicanangkan tidak berlaku pada teknologi penyiaran radio. Ekosistem radio siaran sebelum ASO sudah mengalami penurunan, ditambah dengan tidak dilibatkannya radio dalam keputusan besar dunia penyiaran. Penelitian ini menggunakan paradigma intepretif dan pendekatan studi kasus pada radio siaran swasta di Pekanbaru. Dilakukan dengan metode penelitian campuran konvergen dan menggunakan teori ekologi media serta actor-network theory. Melibatkan 204 orang pendengar sebagai informan yang didekati dengan jalan survei. Penelitian ini melibatkan penanggung jawab media, dan pengawas media yang ditemukan dengan metode purposive. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa: (1) media siaran (radio) diwakilkan melalui konektivitas sosial media adalah ekosistem baru yang ditemukan pada unsur proximity radio siaran; (2) relasi melalui teknologi penyiaran menjadi solusi dalam inovasi sebagai upaya konvergensi (broadcast-broadband) sebagai wadah penyiaran baru bagi radio siaran swasta, sehingga dalam upaya menjaga keberlangsungan ekosistem penyiaran (radio) diperlukan konektivitas teknologi dan regulasi dalam menyiapkan wadah baru bagi industri penyiaran khususnya radio siaran.

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“…The critique that memetics reduces human cultural dynamics to universal laws of evolutionary biology has mostly been geared to Richard Dawkins (1976) , who coined the term “meme” from an evolutionary biological perspective, and subsequent literature like Susan Blackmore (1999) . At the same time, the concept of the meme holds methodological and empirical promise for internet research ( Boullier, 2018 ).…”

Section: From Memetics To Vernacular Language Gamesmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Vernacular Language Games of an Antagonistic Online Subculture

et al. 2021

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In this paper we develop an empirical, big data approach to analyze how alt-right vernacular concepts (such as kek and beta) were used on the notorious anonymous and ephemeral imageboard 4chan/pol/and the fan wiki Encyclopedia Dramatica. While 4chan/pol/is broadly regarded as an influential source of many of the web’s most successful memes such as Pepe the Frog, Encyclopedia Dramatica functions as a kind of satirical Wikipedia for this meme subculture, written in high concept and highly offensive vernacular style. While the site’s affordances make them distinct, they are connected by a subcultural style and politics that has recently become increasingly connected with violent right-wing activism, forming a loose subcultural language community. Contrary to “memetic” theories of cultural evolution in media studies, our analysis draws on theoretical frameworks from poststructuralist and pragmatist philosophies of language and deploys empirical techniques from corpus linguistics to consider the role of online platforms in shaping these vernacular modes of expression. This approach helps us to identify instances of vernacular innovation within these corpora from 2012-2020—a period during which the white supremacist “alt-right” movement arose online. Through these analyses we contribute both to ongoing interdisciplinary attempts to bridge the gap between cultural-theoretical and computational-linguistic approaches to studying online subcultures, and to the empirical study of the vernacular roots of the “toxic memes” that appear to be an increasingly common feature on social media.

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Médialab stories: How to align actor network theory and digital methods

Cited by 8 publications

References 42 publications

‘Who is /ourguy/?’: Tracing panoramic memes to study the collectivity of 4chan/pol/

‘Who is /ourguy/?’: Tracing panoramic memes to study the collectivity of 4chan/pol/

Ekosistem Radio Siaran Swasta di Pekanbaru pada Era Penyiaran Digital

On the Vernacular Language Games of an Antagonistic Online Subculture

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