Rights statement: The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Global Media and Communication, 12 (2), 2016, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2016 by SAGE Publications Ltd at the Global Media and Communication page: http://gmc.sagepub.com/ on SAGE Journals Online: http://online.sagepub.com/
Accepted author manuscript, 165 KB, PDF document
Available under license: CC BY-NC: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Networked idiots
T2 - affective economies and neoliberal subjectivity in Russian viral video
AU - Khalikova, Dinara
AU - Fish, Adam Richard
N1 - The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Global Media and Communication, 12 (2), 2016, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2016 by SAGE Publications Ltd at the Global Media and Communication page: http://gmc.sagepub.com/ on SAGE Journals Online: http://online.sagepub.com/
PY - 2016/8
Y1 - 2016/8
N2 - Idiot is usually a term of derision. In this article, we reconsider the common meaning as designating a stupid person and return to an earlier etymology as signifying a private and independent individual. In ancient Greece, being idiotic meant engaging in the contemplative process of becoming an individual. At times, this pursuit of individuation differentiated such individuals as their acts occurred in public and were seen as absurd, out-of-the-ordinary and, frankly, idiotic, as most now know the term. With the widespread use of social media and digital video, these once private or semi-public acts of individuation often become explicitly public acts for others to see, critique and mimic. Social media has made it possible for these explorations of self to circulate where their emotional intensities resonate with or are rejected by viewers, are captured for profit by media corporations, and leveraged by their producers into media careers. Using a case study from Russian social media, this article describes the affective economy of idiotic videos and how the history of one Internet video illustrates the circulation, capture and self-capitalization attendant with neoliberalism.
AB - Idiot is usually a term of derision. In this article, we reconsider the common meaning as designating a stupid person and return to an earlier etymology as signifying a private and independent individual. In ancient Greece, being idiotic meant engaging in the contemplative process of becoming an individual. At times, this pursuit of individuation differentiated such individuals as their acts occurred in public and were seen as absurd, out-of-the-ordinary and, frankly, idiotic, as most now know the term. With the widespread use of social media and digital video, these once private or semi-public acts of individuation often become explicitly public acts for others to see, critique and mimic. Social media has made it possible for these explorations of self to circulate where their emotional intensities resonate with or are rejected by viewers, are captured for profit by media corporations, and leveraged by their producers into media careers. Using a case study from Russian social media, this article describes the affective economy of idiotic videos and how the history of one Internet video illustrates the circulation, capture and self-capitalization attendant with neoliberalism.
KW - Affect
KW - affective economies
KW - capture
KW - idiot
KW - neoliberalism
KW - online networks
KW - Russia
KW - video
U2 - 10.1177/1742766516652165
DO - 10.1177/1742766516652165
M3 - Journal article
VL - 12
SP - 143
EP - 159
JO - Global Media and Communication
JF - Global Media and Communication
SN - 1742-7673
IS - 2
ER -