Cecilia Diaz Critical/Cultural Methods Dr. Bob Bednar 4/8//21

Cecilia Diaz Critical/Cultural Methods Dr. Bob Bednar 4/8//21 Research Project Draft Protests in the name of social reform have recently undergone drastic transformations in how they are founded and manifested. The ascension of social media use in the early 2000s gave rise to streamlined instant communication between people that otherwise may have never communicated organically. History has proven that we gather together in times of hardship and join forces when those hardships necessitate change and reform. The internet eliminates the practical issue of distance and facilitates the possibility of an infinite number of formed communities. In the case of protest, it facilitates the ability to organize and gather to demand social and political change. Sebastián Valenzuela suggests that one explanation for use of social networks and political protest may be online expression as a foundation for action. It is stated, “In addition to cognitive preparation, the expression of opinions can be facilitators of political protest” (Valenzuela, 2014). Research has shown that when individuals talk about political subjects publicly, they are more likely to mobilize and engage in political activities. The expression “allows people to face their ideas, make arguments, and reflect on the information obtained” (Schmitt-Beck, 2008). Platforms like Twitter and Facebook have acted as multiplexes for the expression of political views and serve as the foundation for many modern protests such as the Black Lives Matter movement, #MeToo, Arab Spring, and the Sunflower Student Movement. The protest this study will focus on is unique in that it was not founded as a politically driven protest but became one, or perhaps more accurately, was received as one as it gained popularity in mainstream media publics. The movement I refer to is the recent and ongoing confrontation of professional hedge fund investors by online activist investors from Reddit’s forum, r/wallstreetbets (WSB). In the month of January, a stand was taken by a virtual community of amateur investors against the obvious profiteering happening in the stock market, albeit as somewhat of a joke. I make the argument that a transformation occurred in the subreddit’s narrative and motive as it gained recognition online and created a more widespread movement aided by its diffusion and encouragement from the public. My intention in this study is to explore the relationship between the online discourses about the stock surge and WSB’s transformation into an activist-minded movement against economic disparity and dishonesty in the stock market. In my research, I seek to answer the questions: How was the online Reddit community formed and maintained as a counterpublic, specifically in the context of acting as a rebellious force within the stock market? What is the discursive relationship between the Reddit community’s communicative practices and the resulting media (news, popular, and social) that followed the stock surge? How did the shift to a more activist-minded movement happen? Using the theoretical concepts of self-categorization, connective action, opinion leaders, and the protest paradigm, I aim to understand how this movement functioned and made its impacts. Calling upon the studies from Bennett and Segerberg’s examination of the logic of connective action, I intend to apply this to the “flash mobilization” of WSB’s distinct mode of protest. In addition to this, my analysis will unfold with the guidance of Douglas McLeod’s study of the protest/public nuisance paradigm. McLeod employs this concept to the patterns of news reporting of various protests, making the argument that the selective coverage exacerbates social conflict. This supports the claim that the framing of WSB as delinquent criminals contributed to their anger at a “rigged system” and drove them further into interpellating as an activist movement. I also believe that the pre-formed community bonds of WallStreetBets aided their formation as a vigilante-type group. My proposal is that this combination of circumstances and internal virtual communication ultimately supported the movement’s persistence and growth. On the 13th of January, a subreddit forum known as r/wallstreetbets (WSB) collectively bought stock in the failing brick and mortar game retailer GameStop. The buying trend started in an effort to halt hedge fund investors from shorting the GameStop stocks. Shorting is an investment strategy used in the stock market in which stocks are borrowed at a high value, sold immediately, bought back at a lower price, and returned to the lender so that a profit is made. When done in high volumes, this strategy can earn profits into the millions. This strategy is most effective when the buyer predicts there will be a drop in stock prices. Therefore, struggling companies are targeted for shorting, as their stocks are predicted to drop considerably. Essentially, hedge fund investors make absurd amounts of money from betting against a company. In the case of GameStop, short sellers were borrowing more shares than were even available to buy at the beginning of January. The flagrant shorting activity was detected by members of WSB, and from it, a discourse was produced around the ethics of capitalizing on a company’s collapse—especially in the middle of 2020’s global health crisis. The Reddit forum’s collective buying of GME (GameStop’s ticker symbol) caused the stock prices to shoot up, much to the surprise of hedge fund firms like Melvin Capital and short-seller Andrew Left of Citron Research. This resulted in the following “squeeze” that required hedge funds to buy their owed stocks back at a financially disastrous price. The Reddit investors received significant criticism from those investment companies, from news media, and from the general public. However, the online investors were also met with encouragement from others within those same spheres. Discourses online pointed out the hypocrisy of professional investors who benefit from market manipulation but criticize when the same methods are used against them. The increased publicity received by WSB made for their subsequent formation into a kind of vigilante movement against the economic elite. The result is that the GameStop short squeeze has been likened, on some levels, to the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement of 2011. Although, it is essential to note that, unlike OWS, the Reddit investors did not initially present themselves as social activists. Rather, I suggest that a social movement was formed as the activity gained momentum online. Reddit’s subforum for amateur but risky stock traders, WallStreetBets, describes themselves in their bio, “Like 4chan found a Bloomberg terminal”. The community is primarily made up of male users aged 18-29 (Pew Research Center). The subreddit was born out of Reddit’s older stock exchange subreddits that rejected certain users for their riskier, “all or nothing” attitudes towards buying. According to Jake Davidson from Money.com, the forum has become more than just a space for risky betting. “It is a fusion of memes, bragging, bullying, hoodwinking, and the exuberant overconfidence of (mostly) young men” (Davidson). Within a few moments of browsing the subreddit, it’s easy to see the culture that has been built in this domain. It has its own atmosphere and jargon—much of it sexist, homophobic, and ableist. Additionally, the subreddit refers to themselves in male-gendered language like “boys” and “brothers,” which communicates the typical gender stereotype about interest in financial markets. In a way, the forum feels somewhat like a fraternity. Knowing this, one can understand how a kind of camaraderie existed even before the GameStop short squeeze was enacted on hedge funds. This kind of homosocial bonding happens on many platforms that harbor communities. Users might consider this forum a “safe space” or even a family-like team of investing mentors and mentees. Studies of online anonymity and community formation, such as those done by Jillian Code and Nick Zaparyniuk, show that there is a connection between a person’s self-curation into a community and their readiness to assimilate with that community (2010). They propose that “self-categorization accentuates attitudinal, emotional, and behavioral similarity to a group prototype” (p. 1351). In the context of the formation of WSB, the application of these conceptions can be noted in the initial formation of the forum as a space for stock market enthusiasts. At the moment a person subscribes to this forum, they are submerged into a very specific way of doing their membership of WSB. Anonymity is a vital part of the openness of communities. Reddit appoints you a randomly generated username that you can then change. No one uses their real name. Rather, users choose simple handles or more brazen ones such as DeepF*ckingValue (the unofficial driver of the GameStop short squeeze). This confidentiality may make it more comfortable for users to fall into a group prototype and become a follower of the culture—especially a culture as problematic and cancellable as WSB’s. With the security of a new name, the user can subscribe or join the forums they have interests in, self-categorizing themselves for instance as a fellow investor in the case of r/wallstreetbets. Few other subreddits have a culture as specific and niche as r/wallstreetbets. As mentioned above, the subreddit has its own jargon that presumably would be initially unintelligible to an outsider. For example, “yoloing” a stock means an individual has put in a significant amount of their investment into that stonk (intentional misspelling of “stock”) in hopes of acquiring “tendies”, or a successful profit. The specific slang and meme references are inherent to the forum’s style of engagement. A study by Tran and Ostendorf demonstrates that language in online communities is not only utilitarian but acts as a strong identifier of the community. “Experiments with several Reddit forums show that style is a better indicator of community identity than topic, even for communities organized around specific topics” (Tran and Ostendorf, 2016).

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