Digital Affect Culture and the Logics of Melodrama
Online Polarization and the January 6 Capitol Riots through the Lens of Genre and Affective Discourse Analysis
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2414746 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Megan Boler (0000-0003-2379-4635, University of Toronto, corresponding author), Yoon-Ji Kweon (University of Toronto), Míchílín Ní Threasaigh (University of Toronto) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Publication date | 2024-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Media + Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2056-3051 • E-ISSN: 2056-3051 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/20563051241228584 |
| OpenAlex | W4392665797 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 42 |
Drawing on our 3-year digital ethnography of cross-partisan debates in the context of the 2020 US election and January 6 Capitol insurrection, this essay examines the affective and discursive dimensions of online polarization, contributing new understandings of how genre functions as a system of norms that shapes emotional performance online. Through a cross-disciplinary theoretical framework, we demonstrate melodrama's role as a fundamental storytelling structure responsible for the production of polarized cross-partisan debate on social media platforms. Our multi-method analysis of 5000 posts from Twitter, Facebook and Gab reveals users' adherence to melodramatic group identities, enforced through emotional policing and mimetic identification with political influencers. Adopting roles of victim and villain, users channel emotions into archetypal and ritualized narratives of good and evil that in turn polarize political debate. Finally, this essay outlines our innovative methodology of 'affective discourse analysis', a multi-method approach to tracking and coding the social materiality of emotion through digital linguistic practices
Affect theory · Media studies · Optics · Physics · Sociology · Through-the-lens metering · Asian Culture and Media Studies · Chemistry · Communication · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Media Studies and Communication · Psychology · Social Psychology
Small Stories, Interaction and Identities
Prejudice in Discourse
Discourse and Digital Practices
Language, Power and Ideology
The Cultural Politics of Emotion
The Partisan Sort
Anatomy of Criticism
The affective politics of the “post-truth” era
Understanding Social Media Logic
Affective publics and structures of storytelling
Villains, Victims and Heroes
Interview with Megan Boler
Foucault, Governmentality, and Critique
The Dynasty Years
Weaponizing white thymos
Critical Discourse Analysis
What is political expression on social media anyway
The birth of identity biopolitics
Film and Cinema Spectatorship
Conceptualizing Mediatization
Affect and Emotion
What Do We Measure When We Measure Affective Polarization
Fear and Loathing across Party Lines
Communicative Capitalism
The Autonomy of Affect
Emotions and Narrative Analysis
Affect, Not Ideology
Nostalgia and heritage
The public life of white affects
Affective Economies
Mediatization of Emotion on Social Media
From Mediatized Emotion to Digital Affect Cultures
The Affective Turn
Communicating Qualitative Research
Examining Emotion as Discourse
Emotion Work, Feeling Rules, and Social Structure
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 5 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |