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Looking for truth in absurdity: humour as community-building and dissidence against authoritarianism

Looking for truth in absurdity: humour as community-building and dissidence against authoritarianism
Looking for truth in absurdity: humour as community-building and dissidence against authoritarianism
What makes humour an honest and a direct communication tool for people? How do social networking and digital media transmit user-generated political and humorous content? Our research argues that the way in which humour is deployed through digital media during protest action allows protestors to assert humanity and sincerity against dehumanising political manipulation frameworks. Humorous content, to this extent, enables and is indicative of independent thinking and creativity. It causes contemplation, confronts the hegemonic power of the oppressor, and challenges fear and apathy. In order to conduct this research, we collected and analysed tweets shared during the Gezi Park protests. Gezi Parkı was chosen as the keyword since it was an unstructured and neutral term. Among millions of visual images shared during the protests, we concentrate on those that depict humour both in photography and video formats.
0192-5121
629-647
Korkut, Umut
c17eb864-7ca3-4e1e-a535-a23ab22aae5c
Mcgarry, Aidan
b8506739-d4af-4bee-8e15-ca8883b8b8ad
Erhart, Itir
5d544e06-6f5f-4d96-8953-40b20252e7b9
Eslen-Ziya, Hande
ac9340fd-5856-467a-858b-dc5e52d22a53
Jenzen, Olu
ea2f2c5f-197f-4595-8f38-0548817bf25b
Korkut, Umut
c17eb864-7ca3-4e1e-a535-a23ab22aae5c
Mcgarry, Aidan
b8506739-d4af-4bee-8e15-ca8883b8b8ad
Erhart, Itir
5d544e06-6f5f-4d96-8953-40b20252e7b9
Eslen-Ziya, Hande
ac9340fd-5856-467a-858b-dc5e52d22a53
Jenzen, Olu
ea2f2c5f-197f-4595-8f38-0548817bf25b

Korkut, Umut, Mcgarry, Aidan, Erhart, Itir, Eslen-Ziya, Hande and Jenzen, Olu (2022) Looking for truth in absurdity: humour as community-building and dissidence against authoritarianism. International Political Science Review, 43 (5), 629-647. (doi:10.1177/0192512120971151).

Record type: Article

Abstract

What makes humour an honest and a direct communication tool for people? How do social networking and digital media transmit user-generated political and humorous content? Our research argues that the way in which humour is deployed through digital media during protest action allows protestors to assert humanity and sincerity against dehumanising political manipulation frameworks. Humorous content, to this extent, enables and is indicative of independent thinking and creativity. It causes contemplation, confronts the hegemonic power of the oppressor, and challenges fear and apathy. In order to conduct this research, we collected and analysed tweets shared during the Gezi Park protests. Gezi Parkı was chosen as the keyword since it was an unstructured and neutral term. Among millions of visual images shared during the protests, we concentrate on those that depict humour both in photography and video formats.

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e-pub ahead of print date: 4 January 2021
Published date: 1 November 2022

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 488493
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/488493
ISSN: 0192-5121
PURE UUID: e58e2ef3-75b4-4de8-9c27-046baf7b4ce4

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Date deposited: 22 Mar 2024 18:58
Last modified: 22 Mar 2024 18:58

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Contributors

Author: Umut Korkut
Author: Aidan Mcgarry
Author: Itir Erhart
Author: Hande Eslen-Ziya
Author: Olu Jenzen

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