Hostile remixes on YouTube

A new constraint on pro-Farc counterpublics in Colombia

Bibliographic Data

ID2260520
AuthorsAlex Fattal (Department of Anthropology; Harvard University; 33 Kirkland St. Cambridge MA 02138, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume41
Issue2
Pages320-335
Publication date2014-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Ethnologist (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0094-0496 • E-ISSN: 1548-1425
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/amet.12078
OpenAlexW2150068015
LanguageEN
Citations received14
References cited51

Online video streaming marks a participatory turn in Colombia's propaganda war. To understand this shift, I analyze a video the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) produced of its kidnapping of 12 provincial parliamentarians in 2002, tracing fragments of that video as they "recombine" online in two other videos that antagonistically resignify the original. I conduct the same exercise with footage of the Colombian military's rescue of Íngrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages in 2008 and contrast its celebratory recombinations with those of the FARC video. Building on Michael Warner's theory of publics and counterpublics and Mikhail Bakhtin's concept of "re-accentuation," I argue that "recombinatory circulation" reproduces the biases of Colombia's mass media, constraining pro-FARC counterpublics. I contextualize the circulation analysis with ethnography focused on former hostages, demobilized rebels, and military intelligence officials. Beyond Colombia, I argue for converting interactive circulation into an empirical and analytical prism to illuminate the politics of online publics

Circulation (fluid dynamics · Citizen journalism · Ethnography · Front (military · Geography · Hurricane katrina · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Prism · Publics · Sociology · Anthropology · Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Social Media and Politics

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