Publics and Counterpublics on the Front Page of the Internet
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PUBLICS AND COUNTERPUBLICS ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THE INTERNET: THE CULTURAL PRACTICES, TECHNOLOGICAL AFFORDANCES, HYBRID ECONOMICS AND POLITICS OF REDDIT’S PUBLIC SPHERE by NOAH JEROME SPRINGER B.A. Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, 2008 M.A. Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, 2011 A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Colorado in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Journalism and Mass Communication 2015 ! This dissertation entitled: Publics and Counterpublics on the Front Page of the Internet: The Cultural Practices, Technological Affordances, Hybrid Economics and Politics of reddit’s Public Sphere Written by Noah Jerome Springer has been approved by the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication _________________________________________________ (Committee Chair - Dr. Kathleen M. Ryan) _________________________________________________ (Dr. Janice Peck) _________________________________________________ (Dr. J. Rick Stevens) _________________________________________________ (Dr. Nabil Echchaibi) _________________________________________________ (Dr. Leysia Palen) Date:______________ The final copy of this thesis has been examined by the signatories, and we Find that both the content and the form meet acceptable presentation standards Of scholarly work in the above mentioned discipline. IRB Protocol #: 14-0273 ! iii Springer, Noah J. (Ph.D. Journalism and Mass Communication) Publics and Counterpublics on the Front Page of the Internet: The Cultural Practices, Technological Affordances, Hybrid Economics and Politics of reddit’s Public Sphere Thesis directed by Associate Professor Kathleen M. Ryan This dissertation represents an in depth examination of the cultural practices, technological affordances and political economic forces that inform the publics and counterpublics formed on the website reddit. Through interpretivist netnography, textual analysis and document analysis, the research presented here establishes a variety of different events (both historical and contemporary) and discourses that have taken place on the site and shows how these events and discourses are emblematic of contemporary neoliberal ideologies. Drawing on the theoretical tradition of the “public sphere” established by Jürgen Habermas, this research concludes that reddit shows the potential for an effective public sphere through digital technology. However, despite this potential, much of the discourse on reddit reinforces traditional neoliberal ideologies; furthermore, actions on behalf of the administration, moderators and users on the sites also indicate that while reddit has afforded individuals the opportunity to change federal political policy, these events do not translate into an inclusive public sphere that escapes the neoliberal trappings of technological fetishism. ! ! ! DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my loving wife, Jamie Springer. Without her continued support and patience over the last four years, none of this could have come to fruition. Thank you for listening to me. ! ! ! v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to thank Dr. Kathleen M. Ryan for her continued help and dedication to my work throughout my four years at the University of Colorado, Boulder. I would like to thank my entire committee for their patience and helpful advice when constructing this research project. A special thanks to Martha LaForge and her kindness and helpfulness throughout my time at CU. Thanks also to my parents for their influence on my decision to continue my education and finish my dissertation. In addition, Ransome Springer, Luke Springer, Anna Springer, Dan Boser, Chris Lowe, Ben Sommer, and James Sivalingam also deserve my eternal thanks for their support throughout this process. Finally, Brian Pritchett also deserves special recognition for introducing me to reddit way back in 2007. ! ! ! vi CONTENTS CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………………………… 1 II. BACKGROUND AND SOCIAL CONTEXT ……………………………………… 7 A Brief History of reddit ……………………………………………………….. 7 Social Media, Social News …………………………………………………….. 11 The Politics of Web 2.0 ………………………………………………………... 16 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………... 22 III. CRITICAL THEORIES OF TECHNOLOGY, CULTURE AND POLITICAL ECONOMY ………………………………………………………………….………… 33 Critical Theory and the Frankfurt School …………………………………….... 33 Theories of Technology, Culture and Political Economy ……………………... 47 Reddit Literature ……………………………………………………………….. 59 Research Questions …………………………………………………………….. 62 IV. METHODOLOGY ………………………………………………………………… 79 The Rise of Interpretivist Ethnography ………………………………………... 79 Netnography …………………………………………………………………… 83 Interpretivist Ethnography, Netnography and reddit …………………………... 86 Textual Analysis ……………………………………………………………….. 91 Document Anlaysis …………………………………………………………….. 94 ! ! ! vii Researcher as Instrument and the Shifting Field Site ………………………….. 95 Netnographic Evaluation Criteria …………………………………………….. 100 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………......... 106 V. THE CULTURAL PRACTICES OF REDDIT’S PUBLIC SPHERE ..................... 114 Searching and Search-Enabling ......................................................................... 114 Showing and Being Shown ................................................................................ 118 Presencing .......................................................................................................... 122 Archiving ........................................................................................................... 125 Complex Media-Related Practices ..................................................................... 127 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 135 VI. TECHNOLOGIES AND ECONOMIES OF REDDIT ........................................... 146 reddit’s Commercial Economies ........................................................................ 146 reddit’s Sharing Economies ............................................................................... 153 reddit’s Hybrid Economies ................................................................................ 158 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 166 VII. PUBLICS AND COUNTERPUBLICS ON REDDIT ........................................... 178 #GamerGate and r/KotakuInAction ................................................................... 179 The Texts of GamerGate .................................................................................... 182 Public Discourse and GamerGate ...................................................................... 187 The Intellectual Style of a reddit Public and Counterpublic .............................. 198 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 208 VIII. THE NEOLIBERAL FANTASIES OF REDDIT’S PUBLIC SPHERE .............. 226 Communicative Capitalism ................................................................................ 226 ! ! ! viii The Fantasy of Abundance ................................................................................ 229 The Fantasy of Participation .............................................................................. 231 The Fantasy of Wholeness ................................................................................. 234 The Fantasy of Alterneity .................................................................................. 236 The Fantasy of Anonymity ................................................................................ 240 The Neoliberal Fantasy of Gatewatching .......................................................... 245 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 250 IX. CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................ 258 BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................................... 269 APPENDICES ............................................................................................................... 281 ! ! 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION During the 2012 U.S Presidential Campaign, incumbent candidate, Barack Obama participated in an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) question-and-answer session on the social news site, www.reddit.com (reddit). Although he only answered ten questions, President Obama’s interaction with his citizenry through reddit represented an important juncture for the self-billed “front-page of the Internet.” Founded in 2005 by Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman, reddit has risen from a small tech start-up to one of the largest sites in the US. Fundamentally, reddit aggregates content submitted by users (either as external links to images, vidoes or articles, or as self-posts) and ranks it based on how users vote (upvote or downvote). Likewise, reddit users (redditors) can also vote on comments underneath each link or self-post. Through reddit’s interface, thousands of redditors expressed their opinions and directly posed questions to their sitting President, indicating the site’s potential for citizens to communicate with their governmental representation through the site. Generally conceived of as a discursive cultural form through which “publics” communicate their opinion to the state,