Titley, Gavan and Pantti, Mervi and Laaksonen, Salla-Maaria (2020) Broadcasting the Movement and Branding Political Microcelebrities: Finnish Anti-Immigration Video Practices on YouTube. Journal of Communication, 70 (2). pp. 171-194. ISSN 0021-9916

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Abstract

This paper examines how the video-sharing platform YouTube was utilized by networks of anti-immigration activists that began emerging in Finland during the so-called refugee crisis in 2015. By combining network analysis with qualitative analysis, we identified three central strategies of video activism: movement building through documentation, discursive controversy generation, and personal branding practices. These strategies are firmly supported by the affordances of YouTube and by the way in which the platform enables the building of varying scales of media presence. Consequently, our findings highlight the increasingly common practice of microcelebrity branding in online political communication. This notion demonstrates the affinities between fragmented and contingently mobilized anti-immigration movements and the personalizing and performance-oriented logics of social media presence, in particular when explored from a post-movement perspective. In the algorithmic environment of YouTube, microcelebrity is a political and a platform-specific genre that occupies the post-movement political space by generating sustainable algorithmic visibility.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Cite as: Salla-Maaria Laaksonen, Mervi Pantti, Gavan Titley, Broadcasting the Movement and Branding Political Microcelebrities: Finnish Anti-Immigration Video Practices on YouTube, Journal of Communication, Volume 70, Issue 2, April 2020, Pages 171–194, https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqz051
Keywords:	YouTube; Video Activism; Anti-Immigration; Social Movements; Microcelebrities; Platform Studies;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Arts & Humanities > School of English, Media & Theatre Studies > Media Studies
Item ID:	15482
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqz051
Depositing User:	Gavan Titley
Date Deposited:	11 Feb 2022 16:28
Journal or Publication Title:	Journal of Communication
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	Publisher
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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