Parody: Affective Registers, Amateur Aesthetics and Intellectual Property

Milne, Esther

doi:10.5130/csr.v19i1.2534

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 6 publications

(7 reference statements)

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“…The notion of an “amateur” has been studied in a variety of forms, including through homemade and Do It Yourself (DIY) artifacts (Luckman, 2013; Wark, 2013); in economies and markets (Luckman, 2013); as practices and ethics of volunteer, un/paid, and neoliberal labor (Fuller, Hamilton, & Seale, 2013; Kennedy, 2013; Ross, 2014); and as an aesthetic in different economies (Hamilton, 2013; Milne, 2013; Ross, 2014). While acknowledging the crucial work on the systemic productions of amateur labor (Ross, 2014) and its resulting consequences and backlash (Kennedy, 2013), this article takes on an anthropological curiosity toward the conscientious performance of amateurism as an everyday aesthetic among the genre of family Influencers on YouTube.…”

Section: From the Backstage To Calibrated Amateurismmentioning

confidence: 99%

#familygoals: Family Influencers, Calibrated Amateurism, and Justifying Young Digital Labor

Abidin

2017

Social Media + Society

197

164

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Following in the celebrity trajectory of mommy bloggers, global micro-microcelebrities, and reality TV families, family Influencers on social media are one genre of microcelebrity for whom the “anchor” content in which they demonstrate their creative talents, such as producing musical covers or comedy sketches, is a highly profitable endeavor. Yet, this commerce is sustained by an undercurrent of “filler” content wherein everyday routines of domestic life are shared with followers as a form of “calibrated amateurism.” Calibrated amateurism is a practice and aesthetic in which actors in an attention economy labor specifically over crafting contrived authenticity that portrays the raw aesthetic of an amateur, whether or not they really are amateurs by status or practice, by relying on the performance ecology of appropriate platforms, affordances, tools, cultural vernacular, and social capital. In this article, I consider the anatomy of calibrated amateurism, and how this practice relates to follower engagement and responses. While some follower responses have highlighted concerns over the children’s well-being, a vast majority overtly signal their love, support, and even envy toward such parenting. I draw on ethnographically informed content analysis of two group of family Influencers on social media to illustrate the enactment and value of calibrated amateurism in an increasingly saturated ecology and, investigate how such parents justify the digital labor in which their children partake to produce viable narratives of domestic life.

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Section: From the Backstage To Calibrated Amateurismmentioning

confidence: 99%

#familygoals: Family Influencers, Calibrated Amateurism, and Justifying Young Digital Labor

Abidin

2017

Social Media + Society

197

164

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“…In other words, it is possible to miss the parodic intent of a work if one is unfamiliar with the cultural references. (Milne, 2013, p. 197) 13…”

Section: From a Genre Of Utopian Unity To Emergence Of Satirementioning

confidence: 99%

Satire, social media and revolutionary cultural production in the Bahrain uprising: From utopian fiction to political satire

Jones

2017

Communication and the Public

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Social media has permitted activists to subvert censorship and state-controlled media. As a result, it has become a key medium for experimenting with and/or creating genres previously marginalised or discouraged by the Bahraini government. This article explores aspects of revolutionary cultural production and creative resistance in Bahrain since the uprisings in 2011 and examines the role social media has played in shaping and defining it. Focusing on memes, parody accounts and the YouTube serial Baharna Drama, this article looks at the rise of political satire online and the evolution of satirical forms over the progression of the uprising as a dialectic with government policy and propaganda. This article argues that social media has facilitated the emergence of new forms of satire in Bahrain and has allowed activists to assert, to both local and global audiences and in different registers, the integrity of a desired revolutionary aesthetic by confronting state attempts to paint the revolution as schismatic and divisive. As such, 2011 marked a new turn in Bahrain’s satirical heritage. It also argues that the subversive nature of satire makes it a favourable genre with regard to revolutionary cultural production and the public sphere, yet acknowledges that satirical forms, as a response to authoritarian policies, are rarely devoid of the tutelage necessary to make them a truly revolutionary form of counter-narrative.

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