• DISORDER IN DISCOURSE: 5G, COVID-19 & THE TECHNOLOGIES OF TRUTH

    Author(s):
    Craig Ryder (see profile)
    Date:
    2020
    Subject(s):
    Ethnology, Mass media--Study and teaching, Social media
    Item Type:
    Dissertation
    Institution:
    SOAS
    Tag(s):
    5g, disinformation, facebook, fake news, Reddit, Digital sociology, Ethnography, Media studies, Social anthropology
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/0s3s-hn79
    Abstract:
    Disinformation relating 5G, the fifth generation of mobile technology, to COVID-19 has motivated a spate of violent attacks against telecommunication engineers and towers across Europe and the USA. The infodemic incubated on social media, but how specific platform affordances contribute to the fake news cycle remains understudied. This research deconstructs social media as a homogeneous technological actor by conducting digital ethnography on Facebook and Reddit and shows how the 5G:COVID-19 infodemic is a heterogeneous phenomenon shaped by platform affordances. The findings are presented in three segments: 1) Affordance Dynamics refers to platform architecture, 2) Contextual Heft translates the content shared, and 3) Discourse Analysis relates to the communicative dynamics, thus providing a deep dive into constitutive elements of the social media experience. Grounded in discourse theory, first advanced by Foucault, and later by Laclau and Mouffe, the methodology looks to identify the nodal points and the floating signifiers in the infodemic. The titular argument is that the conditions of social media have profoundly disrupted the procedures of discourse, so much so, that disorder is the new normal.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    3 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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