Which Alternative? A Critical Analysis of YouTube-Comments in Anti-Fascist Protest

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31269/triplec.v10i1.313

Keywords:

digital media, activism, propaganda, counter public, ideology, social web

Abstract

This article examines the critical potential of YouTube-comments to foster the development of counter public (Negt and Kluge 1972). The argument is based on an analysis of YouTube-comments in anti-fascist protests taking place in East Germany in 2011. The comments represent political positions across the political spectrum and are analyzed as: [1] form of the comments; [2] different political positions as friend-enemy constellations; [3] the struggle for attention in the mass media; [4] the critical potential of the different alternatives represented in the comments. The article concludes with a discussion of the emancipative potential of social web platforms such as YouTube to support the struggle from below and to give voice to oppressed political positions.

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Author Biography

  • Christina Neumayer, IT University of Copenhagen

    Christina is a PhD fellow in the Design, Culture, Mobility, and Communication (DCMC) research group at the IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Her PhD project explores how radical political ideology is reproduced in digital media. Her research interests include activism, participation and political communication online.

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Published

2012-01-30

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 1 (2012)

Section

"Critical Theory and Political Economy of the Internet @ Nordmedia 2011" (ed. Christian Fuchs, Göran Bolin)

License

tripleC is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal (ISSN: 1726-670X). All journal content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 License.