Vigilant Audiences: An International Symposium on Scrutiny, Denunciation, and Shaming in Digital Media Use

This two-day symposium considers online forms of shaming and denunciations, and features research from scholars looking at a global range of cases.

Today’s media landscape allows for scrutiny and intervention in the lives of others. Both police and the press are aided and even supplanted by digital media users, who can report and comment on events through any number of mobile applications and other web-based platforms. They may denounce high profile crimes, such as terrorism, sexual exploitation, or participation in riots. They may also target comparatively benign transgressions such as petty theft, bad parking, or disorderly conduct. In some cases, ordinary citizens may play a primary role in breaking a story, for example, by publishing footage of a criminal event. In other cases they may respond to a story that broke through a broadcaster, and go on to shape the visibility and public perception of that story through vitriolic comments, crowdsourced information about the perpetrator, and even physical interventions.

Presenters will share their ongoing research in the areas of policing, entertainment and citizenship, followed by questions and discussion. Faculty and students from all disciplines as well as members of the public are welcome to attend.

Draft Schedule
Day 1: Wednesday 3rd October, 2018

9:00 – 9:30 welcome, registration

9:30 – 10:30 opening remarks
Daniel Trottier, Erasmus University Rotterdam

10:30 – 11:00 coffee break

11:00 – 12:15 panel 1 – vigilant assemblages
1) From the vulgar to the positive: A Chinese working-class online community in scrutiny
Jiaxi Hou, The University of Tokyo
2) ‘Far-right populist ‘societal’ vigilantism: A case study of digital tools appropriation
Valentine Crosset, Université de Montréal & Samuel Tanner, Université de Montréal

12:15 – 13:15 lunch

13:15 – 14:30 panel 2 – active citizens
1) Moroccan vigilantism online: Questioning or reinforcing state legitimacy?
Abderrahim Chalfouat Hassan II University of Casablanca,
2) Main controversies over Lev Protiv’s activity
Gilles Favarel-Garrigues, CERI-Sciences Po

14:30 – 15:00 coffee break

15:00 – 16:30 panel 3 – entertaining audiences
1) The fandom strikes back: On vigilantism in online pop culture fandoms
Simone Driessen, Erasmus University Rotterdam
2) More eyes on crime?: The rhetoric of mediated mugshots
Sarah Young, University of Arizona
3) “I don’t think that’s very funny”: Scrutiny of comedy in the digital age
Isabel Vincent, Bangor University

16:30 – 18:00 borrel

Day 2: Thursday, 4th October, 2018

9:15 – 10:30 panel 4 – police and policing

1) Police and prosecutorial appeals for information and wanted notices: three cases of online and offline vigilantism and their legal consequences
Gabry N.G. Vanderveen, Erasmus University Rotterdam & Mojan Samadi, Leiden University
2) Police responses to digital vigilantism: Are citizens regarded as aides or adversaries?
Rianne Dekker, Utrecht University & Albert Meijer, Utrecht University

10:30 – 11:00 coffee break

11:00 – 12:15 panel 5 – populism and hate speech
1) ‘Make them famous’: virtuous denunciation and the politics of ‘doxing’ in the aftermath of the Charlottesville rally, 2017
Tara Milbrandt, University of Alberta
2) Shaming the shamers: A case study of an online campaign and its social significance
Mojca M. Plesničar, University of Ljubljana & Pika Šarf, University of Ljubljana

12:15 – 12:30 closing words

This event is funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), Stichting Erasmus Trustfonds, and the Department of Media and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam.