{"id":23504,"date":"2018-09-26T07:00:07","date_gmt":"2018-09-26T11:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/?p=23504"},"modified":"2019-04-20T05:23:32","modified_gmt":"2019-04-20T09:23:32","slug":"power-online-the-internet-as-a-discourse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/2018\/09\/26\/power-online-the-internet-as-a-discourse\/","title":{"rendered":"Power Online: The internet as a discourse"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I\u2019ll start by stating the obvious: power manifests in myriad forms. In this piece I\u2019ll be focusing on the normalizing power of discourse. Normalizing discourse refers to the way language \u2013 talk, text, and body \u2013 reinforces the status quo and crystalizes social structures, including our own place within those structures. I will draw on my own research about religion online to make the case that the internet fosters normalizing discourse, while at the same time, leaving room for subversion.<\/p>\n

I suggest conceptualizing digital media as a Foucauldian Discourse, or, for a lack of a better analog: the street, the marketplace. What I mean by Foucauldian discourse is the systematic ways in which communication shapes our social norms. This happens online because, while we use digital media individually<\/em>, we are taking part in a social<\/em> space. Online media includes the multiplicity of opinions experienced through an individual\u2019s lenses. We use digital media in personalized ways: to create a \u2018personal\u2019 profile, to do your own banking, travel, shopping, etc. There are shopify business websites<\/a>, a direct product of ecommerce, which again is by extension is born out of digital media. But the experience in not fully individualized: the \u2018street\u2019 or \u2018tribe\u2019 is always at the background of online activities. Friends and family (\u2018the tribe\u2019) react to personal profiles in social media; reviewers and commenters (\u2018the street\u2019) \u201cshout\u201d their opinions about the latest gadget you just purchased, or the news you are reading; and always, the watchful eye of a big company – Google, Microsoft, Apple \u2013 is present. Therefore, online communication is never done in a vacuum. Even if I am watching cat videos by myself at 3 AM, I am surrounded by society. Online, the individual user is communicating with \u2018the masses.\u2019 They are out in the street, or at the marketplace, or at school, or at church, even if they are physically alone in bed. Online, you converse with \u201ceveryone.\u201d And these online \u2018conversations,\u2019 I argue, are the essence of conceptualizing online media as Foucauldian discourse.<\/p>\n

Understanding digital media as discourse means theorizing digital communication as a set of systematic statements and online practices that create, construct, and negotiate social norms: as spaces of power and resistance. And, while the internet allows for multiple voices and counter-spheres, there are policing and regulating processes that make online media a normalizing force. I\u2019d like to share two example from my own work on religion online that reflect how digital media can be conceptualized as a site for power and resistance.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll begin with a juicy example. In my dissertation I examined Jewish religious negotiation of gender and sexuality. I was hoping to find that the internet \u2013 commonly conceived as a \u2018democratizing\u2019 technology – gives power to new voices \u2013 like women and LGBTQIA+ people \u2013 to reshape gender and sexual norms within this religion. I found the opposite. That the ability to comment, share, like and participate reinforces the religious dogmatic positions rather than, as I anticipated, help bend them. For example, in a Q&A with a rabbi, a female lay person asks if it\u2019s \u201cok for girl to\u2026 masturbate\u201d. The rabbi says no. While in fact, to some degree, Orthodox Judaism does not explicitly prohibit female masturbation, it is not really surprising that the rabbi prohibits this. But what follows is the interesting stuff:<\/p>\n

In the comment section, users, some of whom self-identify as women, shame the girl for asking, and thank the rabbi for prohibiting. \u201cThank god, I can\u2019t masturbate, what a relief!\u201d Just as the rabbi reinforces gendered norms of chastity, the community concurs and entrenches normative notions of shame about a sexualized body. Normalized discourse is thus reinforced and along with it, normative oppressive practice.<\/p>\n

But then, a lone commenter contests the point:<\/p>\n

No way?? [<\/strong>\u05de\u05d4 \u05e4\u05ea\u05d0\u05d5\u05dd<\/strong>]<\/strong>. I\u2019ve discovered this by accident at a young age and for years my conscience was killing me. I tormented myself long and hard to stop and I almost succeeded. I thought to myself, when I get married this will stop by itself. Today I am married and I am so not sorry for my experience with this because this is how I\u2019ve learned what feels good for me and could reach pleasure also with my partner. I hear about married women that do not enjoy [intercourse] and don\u2019t know how to have fun with their husbands. And both sides are then frustrated. I\u2019m not saying you must but if you have this experience it is for sure not bad.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This spark of resistance is short lived, as other commenters collaboratively dissent: \u201cAre you not ashamed?\u201d \u201cWho do you think you are?\u201d, etc. This is just a small example of how the democratic features of the internet can and are<\/em> being used to reinforce traditional, patriarchal and even fundamental, worldviews. However, the inkling of resistance shines through.<\/p>\n

In other cases, the resistance shines brighter. Indeed, the internet is multiple and complex. Thus, not all internet-based discourses will look the same. As such, I find discourses in my research that subvert conservative religio-political positions.<\/p>\n

In a current project, I am examining religious resistance online via Twitter. Specifically, I\u2019m looking at the hashtag #EmptyThePews which is part of a movement of Ex or liberal Evangelicals, using social media to resist Trumpist churches. Here, twitter and Facebook are used to openly share traumatic church experience, and to slowly form a different conception of what a church can and should be \u2013 free of racism, sexism, and hate. The leaders of this movement are calling people to empty the pews of churches that support Trump or hurt their members in other ways. For example, \u201cIf your church supports @realDonaldTrump, ask your pastor to name one quality Christ and Trump have in common. Then walk out. #EmptyThePews\u201d Or: \u201cIf your pastor doesn’t condemn racism tomorrow…walk out. #EmptyThePews\u201d. This hashtag is used to shed light on these experiences, and perhaps, to slowly change the discourse around racism and its deep ties to religion.<\/p>\n

To think of power as discourse and of online communication as a space for normalizing discourse does not mean we are doomed to be controlled by religious authorities and alt-right internet trolls. Discourse is created and maintained by us \u2013 and so we can and must participate in it. True, some have more power to influence the discourse then others, but we can try and contribute to the discourses we are part of online and offline.<\/p>\n

The internet has emerged as a technology with the potential to level the playing field in a number of discursive domains, but it is not the fated savior of liberal values it has been extolled to be. It is more appropriately recognized as a variant of other democratic institutions, the agora, the voting booth, spaces that can only be utilized to their full intended potential when we all engage and participate in them. In the same way that democracy is threatened when we don\u2019t cast our ballots, so too the internet can serve as an echo-chamber for only the most fanatical and extreme of voices. While the internet does offer a greater sense of accessibility and allows for different voices to be heard, this \u2018participatory culture\u2019 does not always lead to change, or to an open and respectful dialogue. We should not be deceived by the seemingly democratic capabilities of the internet. The street can also be democratic, and many lynches happened at the market place. The fleeting feeling of online media, along with its blurring of private and public, create a confusing space. One way to think about this confusing space is to consider it a discourse, in which \u2018they\u2019 or \u2018everybody\u2019 \u2013 the common-sense, the norm \u2013 take the front stage. In this space, it is the work of normalizing social beliefs and behaviors that is taking place, unless counter-publics insist on alternatives. \u00a0Digital media are about defining and negotiating definitions, about power and resistance. And just like in a democracy, change won\u2019t happen if we don\u2019t demand it.<\/p>\n

Ruth Tsuria, Assistant Professor at Seton Hall University College of Communication and the Arts, has earned her Ph.D. from Texas A&M University Department of Communication. \u00a0Her research investigates the intersection of digital media, religion, and feminism.\u00a0Awarded Emerging Scholar in\u00a0Religion in Society<\/em>, Her work has been supported by various bodies, including Women and Gender Studies Program at Texas A&M University. She is currently working on her first book\u00a0Holy Women, Pious Sex, Sanctified Internet:\u00a0Exploring Jewish Online Discourse on Gender and Sexuality<\/em>.<\/p>\n

A version of this work was presented at ASA Media Sociology Preconference, 2018<\/p>\n

Headline image via: Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ll start by stating the obvious: power manifests in myriad forms. In this piece I\u2019ll be focusing on the normalizing power of discourse. Normalizing discourse refers to the way language \u2013 talk, text, and body \u2013 reinforces the status quo and crystalizes social structures, including our own place within those structures. I will draw on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1753,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9967],"tags":[93,55,14584,2043,42,109921],"class_list":["post-23504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","tag-discourse","tag-gender","tag-guest-post","tag-public-sphere","tag-religion","tag-ruth-tsuria"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1753"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23504"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23866,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23504\/revisions\/23866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}