REPRESENTATIONS OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN POPULAR DISCOURSE REPRESENTATIONS OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN POPULAR DISCOURSE By PAMELA INGLETON, B.A. (Hons), M.A. A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy McMaster University © Copyright by Pamela Ingleton, December 2017 McMaster University DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (2017) Hamilton, Ontario (English and Cultural Studies) TITLE: Representations of Social Media in Popular Discourse AUTHOR: Pamela Ingleton, B.A. (Hons) (Queen’s University), M.A. (McMaster University) SUPERVISOR: Professor Lorraine York NUMBER OF PAGES: ix, 248 ii Lay Abstract This sandwich thesis of works published from 2010 – 2017 considers how we talk and write about social media in relation to a variety of other concerns: authorship and popular fiction, writing and publishing, archives and everyday life, celebrity and the opaque morality of media promotion. The project addresses social networking platforms (primarily Twitter and Facebook) and those who serve and critique their interests (authors, readers, academics, “everyday people,” national archives, celebrities and filmmakers), often focusing on the “meta” of the media they take as their focus: “extratexts,” reviews and interviews, tweets about books and books about tweets, critical reception, etc. By examining writing on and about social media, this work offers an alternative, context-specific approach to new media scholarship that, in its examination of things said and unsaid, will help inform our contemporary understanding of social media and, by extension, our social media experience. iii Abstract This sandwich thesis of works published from 2010 – 2017 takes up the discursive articulation of “social media” as a mobilizing concept in relation to a variety of other concerns: authorship and popular fiction, writing and publishing, archives and everyday life, celebrity and the opaque morality of media promotion. The project addresses social networking platforms (primarily Twitter and Facebook) and those who serve and critique their interests (authors, readers, academics, “everyday people,” national archives, celebrities and filmmakers), often focusing on the “meta” of the media they take as their focus: extratexts, reviews and interviews, tweets about books and books about tweets, critical reception, etc. It considers “social media” as an idea or, more accurately, a system or constellation of ideas, a discourse or discourses beyond the mere technological. It examines the authority and impact of these discourses—not the use or usefulness of social media, but the ways these media are taken up, avoided, buttressed and manipulated in the most casual to the most politically contingent venues. In order to better comprehend and articulate the ideas, investments and ideological frameworks grounding social media discourse, this collective work traces and critically assesses the comparisons we make in an effort to render these media familiar and readable; the genealogies we construct in an effort to contextualize them and make their meanings legible; the stories we tell and the venues in which we tell them, to harness their creation and existence for other means, to authorize and deauthorize, to empower and disavow. By examining writing on and about social media, this work offers an alternative, context-specific approach to new media scholarship that, in its examination of things said and unsaid, will help inform our contemporary understanding of social media and, by extension, our social media experience. iv Acknowledgments I will let this monument Represent a moment of my life (“Monument,” Röyksopp & Robyn) Thank you to my kick-ass committee members Mary O’Connor and Susan Fast for their support, patience and guidance; how fortunate to work with such intelligent, accomplished women. Thanks, too, to Cathy Grisé for her enthusiasm throughout the comps and for generously stepping in at the last minute for the defence. Thank you to Aimée Morrison whose external examination offered useful challenges and provocations, as well as mirth and laughter. I had such a wonderful graduate experience because I worked in a wonderful department, so thank you to the English and Cultural Studies faculty for being so damn friendly and brilliant and to Aurelia Gatto, Ilona Forgo-Smith and Antoinette Somo for saving the day every day. Thank you to my curious, determined and imaginative students who could always be counted on to make ideas come alive. Thank you to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for their generous support of this research in 2011-2013. Thank you to Nick Drake, Robyn, Joanna Newsom, Kanye West, Jenn Grant and Aimee Mann—the unofficial soundtrack of this dissertation. Thank you to Hamilton, my home for the past ten years, for being a great place to do this and anything, really. Thank you to Allie Sommerville and everyone at SoulSessions for dancing; the folks at the Ryerson Recreation Centre for splashing; Carla Glanville for helping me through. Thank you to Kerry Vandendriessche for always assuming I was already done. Thank you to Harvey, Lisa, Thomas, Kathryn and the whole Gaster/Siebel/McIntosh crew for warmly welcoming me into the family. Thank you, mom, dad and Curtis for always being impressed and proud; no reviews have ever mattered more than yours. I love you. My time at McMaster was the best time of my life thanks to the incredible people I encountered there. I found my community with Jesse Arsenault, Jessica Barr, Christina Brooks, Nick Buffo, Jessica Carey, Melissa Carroll, Richard Davila, Kaitlin Debicki, Adrienne Havercroft, Michael Hemmingsen (and Mariko!), Emily Hill, Paul Huebener (and Niki!), Kasim Husain, Craig Jennex, Erin Julian, Lisa Kabesh (and Paul!), Jacqueline Langille, Lucy Langston, Eva Lane, Matthew MacLellan, Kyle Malashewski, Geoffrey Martin (and Colleen!), Evan Mauro (and Jaime!), Michael Mikulak, Rick Monture, Devon Mordell, Dana Mount, Simon Orpana, Malissa Phung, Sharlee Reimer, Suzanne Rintoul, Jocelyn Smith (and Jim!), Lauren Stephen, Julie Stewart, Scott Stoneman (and Cathy!), Steph Topping (and Pat!), Jessie Travis, Carolyn Veldstra, Laura Wiebe, Matthew Zantingh (and Lynn!) and so many others and I am forever grateful. v I want to especially thank Emily West, my ride-or-die from day one, Erin Aspenlieder, my 110% inspiration, Matthew Dorrell, my PEI big brother, Nicholas Holm, my international BFF and Stephanie Doig, my first phone call, my voice of reason and my best friend. You are all extraordinary and you have made it all worthwhile. Finally, there would be no thesis were it not for the enduring, impossibly generous support of two of the best people I have ever met. Matthew Gaster: you changed everything and you love with everything and, in the end, you cooked everything and cleaned everything and held our lives together. Screw the dissertation; you were the best thing to come out of the Ph.D. I love you so much. Lorraine York: I now believe people can be smart and good and talented and funny and caring and still watch bad television because you exist. You have been the greatest mentor and friend and I owe you everything; I would not be here without you. The process of completing this degree has been life-shifting. The Ph.D. opened up the world to me, taking me to places I had never been (Montreal, Minneapolis, Austin, Chicago, Victoria and Amsterdam on the trip of a lifetime), introducing me to remarkable people and helping me reach ideas and depths I could never have conceived. It also tore me down, imploded my sense of self-confidence and self-worth, paradoxically eliminating my ability to think and reason and produce. It distanced me from others, perhaps no one moreso than myself. I remain both deeply grateful for and wary of it all, which I think is about right. vi Table of Contents Introduction: Navigating Social Media Discourse ............................................ 1 Chapter 1: “Neither Can Live while the Other Survives:” Harry Potter and the Extratextual (After)life of J. K. Rowling Introductory Note ........................................................................................... 24 Excerpt from J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter; chapter reproduced with permission from Palgrave Macmillan ..................................................... 31 Chapter 2: How Do You Solve a Problem Like Twitterature? Reading and Theorizing “Print” Technologies in the Age of Social Media Introductory Note ........................................................................................... 61 Article reproduced with permission from Technoculture ................................ 69 Chapter 3: “Mechanisms for Non-Elite Voices:” Mass-Observation and Twitter Introductory Note ......................................................................................... 108 Article reproduced with permission from Flow ............................................. 115 Chapter 4: Celebrity Seeking Micro-Celebrity: “New Candour” and the Everyday in the Sad Sad Conversation Chapter 5: From Clooney to Kardashian: Reluctant Celebrity and Social Media Introductory Note ......................................................................................... 123 Article (Ch. 4) reproduced with permission from Celebrity Studies .............. 130 Article (Ch. 5) accepted for publication in Celebrity Studies ......................... 137 Chapter 6: “Humanity” as Discursive Crux: Disturbing “Familiar Transparencies” in Popular Representations of Facebook