Generic intertextuality in online social activism: The case of the It Gets Better project.
The It Gets Better project has been held up as a model of successful social media activism. This article explores how narrators of It Gets Better videos make use of generic intertextuality, strategically combining the canonical narrative genres of the exemplum, the testimony, and the confession in a...
| Published in: | Language in Society Vol. 44; no. 3; pp. 317 - 340 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Cambridge University Press
Jun2015
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=103431505&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 103431505 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00474045 7Y8 jtl: Language in Society issn: 00474045 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jun2015 vid: 44 iid: 3 pid: 15979 pub: Cambridge University Press artinfo: ui: 103431505 10.1017/S0047404515000214 ppf: 317 ppct: 23 formats: tig: atl: Generic intertextuality in online social activism: The case of the It Gets Better project. aug: au: Jones, Rodney H. affil: City University of Hong Kong, Department of English, 8/F Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong su: Genericalness (Linguistics) Activism Structural frames Digital media Violence against gay people Narration sug: subj: Genericalness (Linguistics) Activism Structural frames Digital media Violence against gay people Narration ab: The It Gets Better project has been held up as a model of successful social media activism. This article explores how narrators of It Gets Better videos make use of generic intertextuality, strategically combining the canonical narrative genres of the exemplum, the testimony, and the confession in a way that allows them to claim ‘textual authority’ and to make available multiple moral positions for themselves and their listeners. This strategy is further facilitated by the ambiguous participation frameworks associated with digital media, which make it possible for storytellers to tell different kinds of stories to different kinds of listeners at the same time, to simultaneously comfort the victims of anti-gay violence, confront its perpetrators, and elicit sympathy from ‘onlookers’. This analysis highlights the potential of new practices of online storytelling for social activism, and challenges notions that new media are contributing to the demise of common narrative traditions. (Activism, digital media, genre, LGBT discourse, narrative, positioning)* pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y dt: @attributes: year: 2015 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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