Social media soft affective politics through discursive and algorithmic synchronization
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Francesco L. Sinatora
Abstract
This chapter explores the link between language, social media, and affective politics through the case study of a YouTube commercial by the Kuwaiti telecommunication company Zain. The video, which exhorts Muslims to reject Islamic terrorism and embrace a moderate version of Islam through a hybrid, emotional mixture of language, music, and images of victims of terrorism, generated a large response among Arab and international audiences, who aligned with its progressive message. Drawing on the notion of “synchronization” (Al Zidjaly 2012; Blommaert 2005), I argue that the commercial constitutes an example of soft affective politics, which reinforces dominant discourses about radical, ‘moderate’ Islam, and about the conflicts in the Arab world by capitalizing on the indexicality of multimodal communication and on the ranking algorithm of the YouTube comments section. I suggest the term algorithmic synchronization to explain the way in which, by displaying more recent and more popular comments on top, the YouTube algorithm erases the historical complexity surrounding discourses of religion, terrorism, and conflict in the Middle East. The study shows how the algorithms of the comments section yield more visibility to the comments aligning with the commercial, thus creating a discursive interpretive nudge and manipulating the discursive power of the representation. The analysis of algorithmic synchronization underlying soft affective discourse is in line with proposals around the need for “Techno-Discursive” approaches which situate a “micro” analysis of linguistic dynamics within the “macro” power-discursive environment (KhosraviNik 2017b, 2018).
Abstract
This chapter explores the link between language, social media, and affective politics through the case study of a YouTube commercial by the Kuwaiti telecommunication company Zain. The video, which exhorts Muslims to reject Islamic terrorism and embrace a moderate version of Islam through a hybrid, emotional mixture of language, music, and images of victims of terrorism, generated a large response among Arab and international audiences, who aligned with its progressive message. Drawing on the notion of “synchronization” (Al Zidjaly 2012; Blommaert 2005), I argue that the commercial constitutes an example of soft affective politics, which reinforces dominant discourses about radical, ‘moderate’ Islam, and about the conflicts in the Arab world by capitalizing on the indexicality of multimodal communication and on the ranking algorithm of the YouTube comments section. I suggest the term algorithmic synchronization to explain the way in which, by displaying more recent and more popular comments on top, the YouTube algorithm erases the historical complexity surrounding discourses of religion, terrorism, and conflict in the Middle East. The study shows how the algorithms of the comments section yield more visibility to the comments aligning with the commercial, thus creating a discursive interpretive nudge and manipulating the discursive power of the representation. The analysis of algorithmic synchronization underlying soft affective discourse is in line with proposals around the need for “Techno-Discursive” approaches which situate a “micro” analysis of linguistic dynamics within the “macro” power-discursive environment (KhosraviNik 2017b, 2018).
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Connecting the digital with the social in digital discourse 1
- Digital distribution processes and “new” research tools in SM-CDS 15
- Digital practice as discriminatory discourse 38
- Social media soft affective politics through discursive and algorithmic synchronization 60
- Towards an ethnographic approach to social media discourses 83
- Unpacking disinformation as social media discourse 107
- Language typology as a discursive affordance in digital discourse 127
- Online counterspeech and the targeting of digital discourses of racism in New Zealand 146
- Sexism in digital discourses of women 167
- A journal of impossible things 187
- Index 209
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Connecting the digital with the social in digital discourse 1
- Digital distribution processes and “new” research tools in SM-CDS 15
- Digital practice as discriminatory discourse 38
- Social media soft affective politics through discursive and algorithmic synchronization 60
- Towards an ethnographic approach to social media discourses 83
- Unpacking disinformation as social media discourse 107
- Language typology as a discursive affordance in digital discourse 127
- Online counterspeech and the targeting of digital discourses of racism in New Zealand 146
- Sexism in digital discourses of women 167
- A journal of impossible things 187
- Index 209
