Participation, Pain, and World Making

Abstract

This article examines media participation through affective political economy, using as a case study the documentary Knuckle, a profile of Irish Traveller fighting. The film incorporates videos recorded by fighters and their families. Boasts and threats from one clan to another expand in circulation and become increasingly monetized as they are repackaged. Combing media political economy with Sarah Ahmed's concept of affective economies, this article explores how, through such circulation, the videos help accomplish the affective work of world building, not only within Traveller society but also beyond it in realms such as mixed martial arts (MMA).

Virtually Legitimate: Using Disembodied Media to Position Oneself in an Embodied Community

“…Recent scholarship in media studies as well as anthropology and related disciplines has revealed that there is an active social dimension of Internet usage, especially in the way that individuals produce and circulate discourse [see Boellstorff 2008;Haridakis and Hanson 2009;Coleman 2010]. New media, like YouTube in particular, has been celebrated for its participatory potential, enabling individuals to become active content generators rather than passive recipients of pre-packaged content created, vetted, and circulated by others [Spencer 2014;Scott 2016]. At the same time, however, its detractors argue that it can be a distraction 'from democratic processes' and accelerates the spread of the surveillance state [Scott 2016].…”

“…New media, like YouTube in particular, has been celebrated for its participatory potential, enabling individuals to become active content generators rather than passive recipients of pre-packaged content created, vetted, and circulated by others [Spencer 2014;Scott 2016]. At the same time, however, its detractors argue that it can be a distraction 'from democratic processes' and accelerates the spread of the surveillance state [Scott 2016]. According to the 'uses and gratifications' theory of media viewership, individuals choose to engage with media based on a host of factors including their idiosyncratic goals and needs [Haridakis and Hanson 2009].…”