Research Article
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Year 2023, Issue: 37, 1131 - 1143, 21.12.2023
https://doi.org/10.29000/rumelide.1405827

Abstract

References

  • A Message to Scientology. Youtube. Retrieved September 3, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCbKv9yiLiQ
  • Allen, D. W. (2003). Rtmark: Viral Activism and the Meaning of “Post-Identity.” The Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association, 36(1), 6–24. https://doi.org/10.2307/1315395
  • Bakhtin, Mikhail. (1984). Rabelais and his world (trans. Iswolsky Hélène). Indiana University Press.
  • Benkler, Yochai. (2012) Hacks of Valor: Why Anonymous is not a Threat to National Security. Foreign Affairs. Retrieved September 3, 2023, from https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2012-04-04/hacks-valor
  • Bennett, W. Lance. Lagos, Taso. (2007). Logo Logic: The Ups and Downs of Branded Political Communication. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Vol. 611, 193-206. jstor.org/stable/25097917
  • Carducci, Vince. (2006). Culture Jamming: A Sociological Perspective. Journal of Consumer Culture, 6(1), 116–138. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469540506062722
  • Cheredar, Tom. (2012). Anonymous says ACTA must be killed with fire, hacks U.S. government websites. Venture Beat. Retrieved September 3, 2023, from http://venturebeat.com/2012/02/17/anonymous-acta-gov-websites-hack/
  • Chung, S. K., & Kirby, M. S. (2009). Media Literacy Art Education: Logos, Culture, Jamming, and Activism. Art Education, 62(1), 34–39. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27696317
  • Coleman, Gabriella. (2013). Anonymous in context: The politics and power behind the mask. Internet Governance Papers, Issue 3, 1-22. Retrieved September 3, 2023, from https://www.cigionline.org/static/documents/no3_8.pdf
  • __ (2012a). Phreaks, Hackers and Trolls: The Politics of Transgression and Spectacle. The Social Media Reader. Ed. Michael Mandiberg, New York University Press, 99-119.
  • __ (2012b). “Our Weirdness is Free”. May. No:9-6. 83-11. Retrieved September 3, 2023, from http://gabriellacoleman.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Coleman-Weirdness-Free-May-Magazine.pdf
  • __ (2015). Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous. Verso. London. Print.
  • Critical Art Ensemble. (1996). Electronic Civil Disobedience and Other Unpopular Ideas. Autonomedia.
  • Dahlberg-Grundberg, M. (2016). Technology as movement: On hybrid organizational types and the mutual constitution of movement identity and technological infrastructure in digital activism. Convergence, 22(5), 524–542. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856515577921
  • Dyson Esther. Gilder, George. Keyworth, George. Toffler, Alvin. (1994). “Cyberspace and the American Dream: A Magna Carta for the Knowledge Age” Future Insight. Retrieved September 3, 2023, from http://www.pff.org/issues-pubs/futureinsights/fi1.2magnacarta.html.
  • Eco, Umberto. (1986). "Towards a Semiological Guerrilla Warfare." Faith in Fakes. Trans. William Weaver. London: Secker & Warburg.
  • Farrar, M. E., & Warner, J. L. (2008). Spectacular Resistance: The Billionaires for Bush and the Art of Political Culture Jamming. Polity, 40(3), 273–296. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40213477
  • Fischer, Klaus. (2006). America in White, Black, and Gray: The Stormy 1960s. New York: Continuum. Print.
  • Galloway, Alexander R. (2004). Protocol: How Control Exists after Decentralization. MIT Press.
  • Gjelten, Tom. (2011) FBI Tries to Send Message With Hacker Arrests. NPR. Retrieved September 3, 2023, from https://www.npr.org/2011/07/20/138555799/fbi-arrests-alleged-anonymous-hackers
  • Greenberg, Andy. (2011). HBGary Federal’s Aaron Barr Resigns After Anonymous Hack Scandal. Forbes. Retrieved September 3, 2023, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2011/02/28/hbgary-federals-aaron-barr-resigns-after-anonymous-hack-scandal/
  • Hall, S. (2018). Cultural Studies and Its Theoretical Legacies. In D. Morley (Ed.), Essential Essays, Volume 1: Foundations of Cultural Studies, New York, USA: Duke University Press, 71-100. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781478002413-007
  • Heath, Joseph & Potter, Andrew. (2005). The Rebel Sell: Why the Culture Can’t Be Jammed. Chichester: Capstone.
  • Hern, Alex. (2015). Hacking Team hacked: firm sold spying tools to repressive regimes, documents claim. Guardian. Retrieved September 3, 2023, from http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/06/hacking-team-hacked-firm-sold-spying-tools-to-repressive-regimes-documents-claim
  • ___ (2015). Hacking Team hack casts a spotlight on murky world of state surveillance. Guardian. Retrieved September 3, 2023, from http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/11/hacking-team-hack-state-surveillance-human-rights
  • Hobsbawm, Eric J. (1981). Bandits. Pantheon Books. NY: New York.
  • Jenkins, Henry. (2006). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. NYU Press.
  • Jordan, T. & Taylor, P. (2013). Hacktivism and Cyberwars: Rebels with a cause? Taylor and Francis.
  • Kershaw, B. (2003). Curiosity or Contempt: On Spectacle, the Human, and Activism. Theatre Journal, 55(4), 591–611. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25069332
  • Knabb, Ken. (2006). Situationist International Anthology (Rev. and expanded). Bureau of Public Secrets. Print.
  • Lanters, José. (2001). Carnivalizing Irish Catholicism: Austin Clarke's The Sun Dances At Easter. In Barta, P.I., Miller, P.A., Platter, C., & Shepherd, D. (Eds.). Carnivalizing Difference: Bakhtin and the Other (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203770139
  • Lasn, Kalle. (2000). Culture Jam: How to Reverse America’s Suicidal Consumer Binge – And Why We Must. New York: NY. Harper Collins.
  • LOLPRAH: OVER 9000 PENISES! (2008) Youtube. Retrieved September 3, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7liYfhRgXGk
  • Helen McLure. (2000). The Wild, Wild Web: The Mythic American West and the Electronic Frontier. The Western Historical Quarterly, 31(4), 457–476. https://doi.org/10.2307/970103 McTeigue, J. (2005). V for Vendetta. Warner Bros.
  • Moore, A., Lloyd, D., Whitaker, S., & Dodds, S. (2005). V for Vendetta. DC Comics.
  • Ott, Brian L. (2010) The Visceral Politics of V for Vendetta: On Political Affect in Cinema, Critical Studies in Media Communication, 27:1, 39-54, DOI: 10.1080/15295030903554359
  • Phillips, Whitney. (2015). This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: Mapping the Relationship between Online Trolling and Mainstream Culture. MIT Press. Cambridge.
  • Rosoff, Mark. (2011). Hacker Group Attacks Security "Expert," Posts His Emails Online. Business Insider. Retrieved September 3, 2023, from https://www.businessinsider.com/dont-mess-with-hacker-group-anonymous-2011-2
  • RTmark. (2000). “Sabotage and the New World Order”. Retrieved September 3, 2023, from https://gatt.org.theyesmen.org/arse.html
  • Schopp, A., & Hill, M. B. (2009). The War on Terror and American Topular culture: September 11 and Beyond. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
  • Seifert, Mark. (2011). Once More Unto the Breach. Retrieved September 3, 2023, from https://www.brunswickgroup.com/media/1989/once_more_unto_the_breach.pdf.
  • Shepard, Benjamin. (2008). Bohad, L.M., Duncombe Stephen. “Performing vs the Insurmountable: Theatrics, Activism, and Social Movements. Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies, Vol. 4, No.3, 1-30. liminalities.net/4-3/insurmountable.pdf. Accessed on: 3.9.2023.
  • Soar, Matthew. (2010). The First Things First Manifesto and The Politics of Culture Jamming: Towards A Cultural Economy of Graphic Design and Advertising. Cultural Studies, 16-4, SagePub, 570-592. dx.doi.org/10.1080/09502380210139124.
  • Takahashi, Dean. (2011). The “world’s most wanted hacker,” Kevin Mitnick, has gone straight (interview). Venture Beat. Retrieved September 3, 2023, from https://venturebeat.com/security/interview-with-the-former-worlds-most-wanted-hacker-kevin-mitnick/view-all/
  • Thompson, C. J. (2007). A Carnivalesque Approach to the Politics of Consumption (or) Grotesque Realism and the Analytics of the Excretory Economy. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 611, 112–125. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25097912

A for Anonymous V for Viral: Analyzing Online Activism Through Carnivalesque and Politics of Spectacle

Year 2023, Issue: 37, 1131 - 1143, 21.12.2023
https://doi.org/10.29000/rumelide.1405827

Abstract

This article examines the texts and practices of online activist group ‘Anonymous’ from the perspective of, ‘carnivalesque,’ ‘détournement,’ and ‘spectacle’ in order to explore the overlaps between the tactics of online resistance and the mass media’s strategic containment. Hackers and trolls are pranksters who know the cultural and linguistic values and connotations they work with. Their practices rely on mischief, provocation, and other forms of pranks that generate spectacle both online and offline. Provocation necessitates a keen observation on dominant and popular values in one society. Carnival, as a concept, manifests new formations of togetherness in any given community. With the element of play, community building, and spectacle Anonymous is a countercultural movement in aligned with Theodore Rozsak’s conception of the term. Anonymous as a group which started as a collective for online antagonism is a perfect example through which one can observe how countercultural practices reflect and subvert hegemonic discourses. In this article, I argue that through the appropriation of mass media cultural practices, Anonymous’ activism reinforces the already-dominant language and symbols in the cultural hegemony of late capitalism. However, by embracing the playful and participatory aspects of carnivalesque, this form of activism holds the potential to transform its ‘users’ from passive voyeurs of mischief to active political subjects.

References

  • A Message to Scientology. Youtube. Retrieved September 3, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCbKv9yiLiQ
  • Allen, D. W. (2003). Rtmark: Viral Activism and the Meaning of “Post-Identity.” The Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association, 36(1), 6–24. https://doi.org/10.2307/1315395
  • Bakhtin, Mikhail. (1984). Rabelais and his world (trans. Iswolsky Hélène). Indiana University Press.
  • Benkler, Yochai. (2012) Hacks of Valor: Why Anonymous is not a Threat to National Security. Foreign Affairs. Retrieved September 3, 2023, from https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2012-04-04/hacks-valor
  • Bennett, W. Lance. Lagos, Taso. (2007). Logo Logic: The Ups and Downs of Branded Political Communication. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Vol. 611, 193-206. jstor.org/stable/25097917
  • Carducci, Vince. (2006). Culture Jamming: A Sociological Perspective. Journal of Consumer Culture, 6(1), 116–138. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469540506062722
  • Cheredar, Tom. (2012). Anonymous says ACTA must be killed with fire, hacks U.S. government websites. Venture Beat. Retrieved September 3, 2023, from http://venturebeat.com/2012/02/17/anonymous-acta-gov-websites-hack/
  • Chung, S. K., & Kirby, M. S. (2009). Media Literacy Art Education: Logos, Culture, Jamming, and Activism. Art Education, 62(1), 34–39. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27696317
  • Coleman, Gabriella. (2013). Anonymous in context: The politics and power behind the mask. Internet Governance Papers, Issue 3, 1-22. Retrieved September 3, 2023, from https://www.cigionline.org/static/documents/no3_8.pdf
  • __ (2012a). Phreaks, Hackers and Trolls: The Politics of Transgression and Spectacle. The Social Media Reader. Ed. Michael Mandiberg, New York University Press, 99-119.
  • __ (2012b). “Our Weirdness is Free”. May. No:9-6. 83-11. Retrieved September 3, 2023, from http://gabriellacoleman.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Coleman-Weirdness-Free-May-Magazine.pdf
  • __ (2015). Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous. Verso. London. Print.
  • Critical Art Ensemble. (1996). Electronic Civil Disobedience and Other Unpopular Ideas. Autonomedia.
  • Dahlberg-Grundberg, M. (2016). Technology as movement: On hybrid organizational types and the mutual constitution of movement identity and technological infrastructure in digital activism. Convergence, 22(5), 524–542. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856515577921
  • Dyson Esther. Gilder, George. Keyworth, George. Toffler, Alvin. (1994). “Cyberspace and the American Dream: A Magna Carta for the Knowledge Age” Future Insight. Retrieved September 3, 2023, from http://www.pff.org/issues-pubs/futureinsights/fi1.2magnacarta.html.
  • Eco, Umberto. (1986). "Towards a Semiological Guerrilla Warfare." Faith in Fakes. Trans. William Weaver. London: Secker & Warburg.
  • Farrar, M. E., & Warner, J. L. (2008). Spectacular Resistance: The Billionaires for Bush and the Art of Political Culture Jamming. Polity, 40(3), 273–296. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40213477
  • Fischer, Klaus. (2006). America in White, Black, and Gray: The Stormy 1960s. New York: Continuum. Print.
  • Galloway, Alexander R. (2004). Protocol: How Control Exists after Decentralization. MIT Press.
  • Gjelten, Tom. (2011) FBI Tries to Send Message With Hacker Arrests. NPR. Retrieved September 3, 2023, from https://www.npr.org/2011/07/20/138555799/fbi-arrests-alleged-anonymous-hackers
  • Greenberg, Andy. (2011). HBGary Federal’s Aaron Barr Resigns After Anonymous Hack Scandal. Forbes. Retrieved September 3, 2023, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2011/02/28/hbgary-federals-aaron-barr-resigns-after-anonymous-hack-scandal/
  • Hall, S. (2018). Cultural Studies and Its Theoretical Legacies. In D. Morley (Ed.), Essential Essays, Volume 1: Foundations of Cultural Studies, New York, USA: Duke University Press, 71-100. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781478002413-007
  • Heath, Joseph & Potter, Andrew. (2005). The Rebel Sell: Why the Culture Can’t Be Jammed. Chichester: Capstone.
  • Hern, Alex. (2015). Hacking Team hacked: firm sold spying tools to repressive regimes, documents claim. Guardian. Retrieved September 3, 2023, from http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/06/hacking-team-hacked-firm-sold-spying-tools-to-repressive-regimes-documents-claim
  • ___ (2015). Hacking Team hack casts a spotlight on murky world of state surveillance. Guardian. Retrieved September 3, 2023, from http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/11/hacking-team-hack-state-surveillance-human-rights
  • Hobsbawm, Eric J. (1981). Bandits. Pantheon Books. NY: New York.
  • Jenkins, Henry. (2006). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. NYU Press.
  • Jordan, T. & Taylor, P. (2013). Hacktivism and Cyberwars: Rebels with a cause? Taylor and Francis.
  • Kershaw, B. (2003). Curiosity or Contempt: On Spectacle, the Human, and Activism. Theatre Journal, 55(4), 591–611. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25069332
  • Knabb, Ken. (2006). Situationist International Anthology (Rev. and expanded). Bureau of Public Secrets. Print.
  • Lanters, José. (2001). Carnivalizing Irish Catholicism: Austin Clarke's The Sun Dances At Easter. In Barta, P.I., Miller, P.A., Platter, C., & Shepherd, D. (Eds.). Carnivalizing Difference: Bakhtin and the Other (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203770139
  • Lasn, Kalle. (2000). Culture Jam: How to Reverse America’s Suicidal Consumer Binge – And Why We Must. New York: NY. Harper Collins.
  • LOLPRAH: OVER 9000 PENISES! (2008) Youtube. Retrieved September 3, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7liYfhRgXGk
  • Helen McLure. (2000). The Wild, Wild Web: The Mythic American West and the Electronic Frontier. The Western Historical Quarterly, 31(4), 457–476. https://doi.org/10.2307/970103 McTeigue, J. (2005). V for Vendetta. Warner Bros.
  • Moore, A., Lloyd, D., Whitaker, S., & Dodds, S. (2005). V for Vendetta. DC Comics.
  • Ott, Brian L. (2010) The Visceral Politics of V for Vendetta: On Political Affect in Cinema, Critical Studies in Media Communication, 27:1, 39-54, DOI: 10.1080/15295030903554359
  • Phillips, Whitney. (2015). This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: Mapping the Relationship between Online Trolling and Mainstream Culture. MIT Press. Cambridge.
  • Rosoff, Mark. (2011). Hacker Group Attacks Security "Expert," Posts His Emails Online. Business Insider. Retrieved September 3, 2023, from https://www.businessinsider.com/dont-mess-with-hacker-group-anonymous-2011-2
  • RTmark. (2000). “Sabotage and the New World Order”. Retrieved September 3, 2023, from https://gatt.org.theyesmen.org/arse.html
  • Schopp, A., & Hill, M. B. (2009). The War on Terror and American Topular culture: September 11 and Beyond. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
  • Seifert, Mark. (2011). Once More Unto the Breach. Retrieved September 3, 2023, from https://www.brunswickgroup.com/media/1989/once_more_unto_the_breach.pdf.
  • Shepard, Benjamin. (2008). Bohad, L.M., Duncombe Stephen. “Performing vs the Insurmountable: Theatrics, Activism, and Social Movements. Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies, Vol. 4, No.3, 1-30. liminalities.net/4-3/insurmountable.pdf. Accessed on: 3.9.2023.
  • Soar, Matthew. (2010). The First Things First Manifesto and The Politics of Culture Jamming: Towards A Cultural Economy of Graphic Design and Advertising. Cultural Studies, 16-4, SagePub, 570-592. dx.doi.org/10.1080/09502380210139124.
  • Takahashi, Dean. (2011). The “world’s most wanted hacker,” Kevin Mitnick, has gone straight (interview). Venture Beat. Retrieved September 3, 2023, from https://venturebeat.com/security/interview-with-the-former-worlds-most-wanted-hacker-kevin-mitnick/view-all/
  • Thompson, C. J. (2007). A Carnivalesque Approach to the Politics of Consumption (or) Grotesque Realism and the Analytics of the Excretory Economy. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 611, 112–125. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25097912
There are 45 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects British and Irish Language, Literature and Culture
Journal Section World languages, cultures and litertures
Authors

Şevket Sarper Dörter 0000-0001-7160-5136

Publication Date December 21, 2023
Published in Issue Year 2023 Issue: 37

Cite

APA Dörter, Ş. S. (2023). A for Anonymous V for Viral: Analyzing Online Activism Through Carnivalesque and Politics of Spectacle. RumeliDE Dil Ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi(37), 1131-1143. https://doi.org/10.29000/rumelide.1405827