This research aims to contribute to the study of the networked lives of individuals by investigating relationships between fame and derision in the contemporary digital culture. More specifically, it explores the ways in which affectivities and attitudes such as irony, hostility, ridicule and disgust can be involved in the circulation of online content and in the accumulation of individuals’ attention capital. The ridiculing of others is an inseparable part of human social behaviour. It is caught in the tension between the “sociopositive” function of group aggregation among those who ridicule and the “socionegative” function of exclusion for the subject being ridiculed. In the current media environment, however, we find that the subject being ridiculed may acquire a peculiar social centrality, in which it becomes one of the most frequent points of convergence of networked publics’ attention: currently, the laughing stock and the star find numerous occasions of overlap. Therefore, the research question asked is: “how do networked publics reconfigure the social space of ridicule, when the mocking act online increases the ridiculed subject's media visibility?”. The research begins thus, by considering the figure of the laughing stock within the mass media, in order to observe how this figure change in accordance to new forms of visibility and circulation typical of digital platforms, particularly of YouTube. The case study used to observe such dynamics is YouTube Italia's “Trash Stars”, ordinary people who got famous by becoming objects of mockery within networked publics. The empirical analysis draws on a digital ethnography framework to trace the uses that the publics make of these characters. To this end, the research has carried out 1) a multi-site observation, 2) a content analysis of YouTube comments, and 3) interviews with users of such contents. The purpose of this empirical intervention was to investigate three main dimensions: the construction aspect – “how do networked publics represent the ridiculed subject?” - the fruition aspect – “what kind of pleasure do they derive from scorned subjects?” - and the relationship aspect – “what kind of relationships are established around the object of ridicule?”. In conclusion, it will be argued that the cases studied show the prominence of a "centrality of the marginal" dynamic in networked society, i.e. the tendency of the digital collectives to build a common ground around objects that have little relevance for the individuals.

Youtube Freakshow: fama e derisione nei pubblici connessi

BRILLI, STEFANO
2016

Abstract

This research aims to contribute to the study of the networked lives of individuals by investigating relationships between fame and derision in the contemporary digital culture. More specifically, it explores the ways in which affectivities and attitudes such as irony, hostility, ridicule and disgust can be involved in the circulation of online content and in the accumulation of individuals’ attention capital. The ridiculing of others is an inseparable part of human social behaviour. It is caught in the tension between the “sociopositive” function of group aggregation among those who ridicule and the “socionegative” function of exclusion for the subject being ridiculed. In the current media environment, however, we find that the subject being ridiculed may acquire a peculiar social centrality, in which it becomes one of the most frequent points of convergence of networked publics’ attention: currently, the laughing stock and the star find numerous occasions of overlap. Therefore, the research question asked is: “how do networked publics reconfigure the social space of ridicule, when the mocking act online increases the ridiculed subject's media visibility?”. The research begins thus, by considering the figure of the laughing stock within the mass media, in order to observe how this figure change in accordance to new forms of visibility and circulation typical of digital platforms, particularly of YouTube. The case study used to observe such dynamics is YouTube Italia's “Trash Stars”, ordinary people who got famous by becoming objects of mockery within networked publics. The empirical analysis draws on a digital ethnography framework to trace the uses that the publics make of these characters. To this end, the research has carried out 1) a multi-site observation, 2) a content analysis of YouTube comments, and 3) interviews with users of such contents. The purpose of this empirical intervention was to investigate three main dimensions: the construction aspect – “how do networked publics represent the ridiculed subject?” - the fruition aspect – “what kind of pleasure do they derive from scorned subjects?” - and the relationship aspect – “what kind of relationships are established around the object of ridicule?”. In conclusion, it will be argued that the cases studied show the prominence of a "centrality of the marginal" dynamic in networked society, i.e. the tendency of the digital collectives to build a common ground around objects that have little relevance for the individuals.
2016
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11576/2630601
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