| Description |
1 online resource (xiii, 164 pages) |
| Contents |
Introduction: Polarization, fandom and meeting in the middle -- Getting down in the muck : polarization and online debate -- Finding the fan and anti-fan : fan studies as an interpretative frame for political polarization -- Loving to hate : fandom fuelling polarized behaviour -- Can we debate away the hate? -- 'Fake news,' polarization and fan-like behaviours -- Conclusion: Politics and the political informed by fandom |
| Summary |
This book takes an innovative fan studies approach to investigating one of the most pressing issues of contemporary times: polarization. Drawing on three years of observational data from Facebook political discussions, as well as interviews and survey responses from those heavily engaged in online political debate, Barnes argues a fan-like investment in a political perspective initiates and drives polarization. She calls on us to move beyond the traditional Habermasian approach to political discussion, which privileges the rational and deliberative, and instead focus on how we perform the self. How we behave in these online debates is part of a performance, a performance of self, in which an affective investment in a particular political perspective drives a need to contribute, refute and other those opposing. Because this performance stems from an emotional basis, judgments and contributions are often not rational or factual, but rather a form of establishing and defending an identity. Renne Barnes is senior lecturer in Journalism at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
Print version record |
| Subject |
Social media -- Political aspects
|
|
Polarization (Social sciences) -- Political aspects
|
|
Social media -- Political aspects
|
| Form |
Electronic book
|
| ISBN |
9783031140396 |
|
3031140397 |
|
