#CancelCulture A critical discourse analysis of cancel culture and its effect on representation and voice. Rozarina Bakher Communication for Development One-year master 15 Credits Summer 2021 Supervisor: Jakob Svensson Abstract Cancel culture has been described by some as a form of online activism. It has also been argued as activism with both negative and positive effects. For the positive side, cancel culture has worked to emphasize the representation and voice of women during the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment at workplaces. On the other hand, cancel culture has a reputation for being "activism-for-bad" when it silences the voice of people that may contribute to the area of communication for development and social change. For example, it is said to have stifled academic freedom and restricted open debates in cultural institutions. The aim of this thesis is to examine how cancel culture determines whose representation and voice is heard, and has it evolved from being a tool of activism to one that is said to threaten democratic participation? The thesis analyses six online articles that appears as the top results on Google Search during a specific timeline between the period of 2015 - 2021. These timelines were determined from Google Trends® by looking at when the term 'cancel culture' were trending highest on the internet. Applying methodological framework based on the theories of Critical Discourse Analysis, this thesis sets out to analyse words and terms used in these online articles that contributed to the discourse on cancel culture and analyses its relations to representation and voice. Keywords: cancel culture, representation, voice, Google, critical discourse analysis. Acknowledgement I am dedicating this thesis to my family who made it possible for me to take part in this master's programme. Ole, my husband of 25 years, who sat patiently through my late evenings of reading. My three children Matthew, Jeremy and Benjamin who have shared their thoughts as millennials and Gen Z on cancel culture and walked me through a plethora of social media platforms such as TikTok® and Snapchat® on its uses and effectiveness. I did not manage to include all of it here except for what I can phantom from Twitter®, as Gen X. This is also for all working moms who partake in part time study like me. The Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown made our work more challenging. As my workload varied and the 24/7 being at home with the family for what seems forever with minimum time outside, has caused strain to both physical and mental health. Reaching this milestone of submitting the thesis gave me a boost of energy and a renewed confidence. Lastly, to all the professors and lecturers at Malmö University who have patiently guided me throughout the course, thank you. I have learnt a lot from the Communication for Development program. The most striking is the self-reflection of being a product of postcolonialism. One of whom thinks and speaks in another language than their parents. A humbling journey. Table of contents 1. Introduction 1 1.1. Background 2 2. Literature Review 3 2.1. Limitation to literature review 4 2.2. Concepts in Cancel Culture and Research Questions 5 2.3. Defining Cancel Culture 5 2.4. Representation and Voice 6 2.5. Power and knowledge in representation and voice 8 2.6. The internet as a cultural form for cancel culture 10 2.7. Conclusion to literature review 11 2.8. Research questions 13 3. Theoretical Framework 14 3.1. Discourse theory 14 3.2. Critical discourse analysis 16 4. Methodology 16 4.1. Data collection 18 4.2. Limitation of analysis 19 5. Critical discourse analysis of the articles 20 5.1. "Everyone is canceled" 22 5.2. "Obama on Call-Out Culture": That's Not Activism" 25 5.3. "Cancel Culture Is Not Real – At Least Not in the Way People Think" 28 5.4. "J.K. Rowling accused of transphobia after mocking 'people who menstruate' headline." 30 5.5. "A Letter on Justice and Open Debate" 34 5.6. "It's time to cancel this talk of 'cancel culture'". 37 5.7. Summary of CDA 39 6. Conclusion 43 6.1. Implication for C4D and representation and voice 46 References 47 Bibliography 50 Appendix 1: Google Trends search term 'cancel culture' from 1 January 2015 to 31 March 2021 54 Appendix 2. Google Search returns for online articles for CDA for 2018 55 Appendix 3: Disclaimer 56 Endnotes 57 List of figures Figure 1.Fairclough 3-Dimensions CDA 17 Figure 2. Cancel Culture searches on Google between 2015 - 2021 21 Figure 3. Own illustration of timeline of critical discourse analysis on cancel culture 44 Figure 4.Cancel culture 2015 - 2021 on Google Trends 54 1. Introduction Cancel culture is a new phenomenon that needs to be better understood, hence this research aims to look at its development, and how the phenomenon of cancel culture can effect our understanding of representation and voice. Communication for development (C4D) in recent times has pushed for a more participatory approach to development and greater representation of voices from, for example those underrepresented and marginalized people. This is with the aim to foster meaningful social change by including representation and voice of these groups. The thesis will be divided into several chapters. The first chapter will introduce and provide a brief background to the topic of cancel culture such as what it could mean to be cancelled by providing an example of the phenomenon from a social media post. The second chapter will feature selected literature reviews of relevant academic papers that have found to be covering and discussing cancel culture. During the literature review, an analysis of the development of cancel culture will be discussed in relation to representation and voice and aims to identify gaps in the study and propose the research questions. Chapter three will discuss discourse theory as the thesis theoretical framework, followed by methodology and data collection on Chapter four. This chapter will also discuss how data will be retrieved online to help answer the research questions and provide explanation how cancel culture can affect certain communication for development matters such as representation and voice. In this chapter, limitations of the thesis research will also be discussed. Chapter five will present and discuss the findings from the critical discourse analysis, followed by chapter six with conclusions and discussion on the implication of cancel culture for C4D with regard to representation and voice. 1 1.1. Background "They came first for the Communist, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionist, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up." Martin Niemöller, Lutheran Pastor, 1892-1984 I chose to feature the above poetic form of Niemöller post-war confessional prose as it touches on the topic of my thesis's discussion pertaining to the ethos practised in communication for development (C4D), namely representation and voice. The words have been analysed numerous times before on its message, and while I do not dwell in depth of its origin, I chose it because it provides food-for-thought towards the concept of representation and voice, and why it matters to people. While the availability of new media and technology such as Google® and social media platforms such as Twitter® holds the potential and opportunities for popular participation, democracy and for the increase of transparency and accountability, digital platforms are also the battlefield for the usual power struggle including the social justice of marginalized and minority groups. Digital harassment in all its forms is a strategy to silence people. Cancel culture in recent times, has become a form of an online harassment that has been said to instil fear and threatened certain groups from speaking up and participating in open debates. For example, a 2017 survey by Amnesty International1 which looked at the experiences of women between the ages of 18 and 55 across several countries reported that 23% of the women surveyed have experienced online abuse or harassment at least once. The same survey also mentioned that 32% of 2 these women, will stop posting content that expressed opinion on certain issues due to online harassments. Included among this statistic are female activists of minority backgrounds. In December of 20192, J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, tweeted her support to Maya Forstater of how unfair it was for her to lose her job for questioning the UK's government decision to allow people to declare their own gender. Forstater is a known vocal of 'TERF, short for trans-exclusionary radical feminist. TERF are supporter of a political movement arguing that transgender women are men and should be exempt from the legal and social protections afforded to women who are biologically assigned female at birth. As the result of this, Rowling was purportedly cancelled for showing her support to the group. The Harry Potter franchise was affected, with fans withdrawing support, book signing events cancelled and she was called a transphobic. Upon reading this article, I learnt of a new form of gender activism group called 'TERF'. Prior to this event, I did not know of this group's activism, so how does this new form of activism and its representation for voicing gender identity, challenges other people's normative understandings of gender in general? What was previously accepted largely by most people on representation, such as what we know as the biological sex of a female and male, could possibly be changed through the cancel culture movement.