The guiding questions of this thesis aim to target particularities of ‘call out’ or ‘cancel’ culture - an internet phenomenon primarily dominant through social media - and fill in gaps within the literature pertaining to such online culture. Although adhering to the digital sphere, its repercussions beyond the screen are observed through the ‘dramageddon’ of 2019, the cancellation events of YouTuber influencer James Charles. This thesis seeks out to apply participatory culture and symbolic interaction theories as well as accompanying concepts through a qualitative approach. The data collected consists of a blend of media content analysis of Twitter posts known as ‘receipts’ and interviews with three YouTubers as well as a Social Media expert. The results depict cancel culture to be associated with expected themes of justice, resentment, drama or entertainment value and group mentality as well as the offline ramifications. Unexpected themes also surface during data collection and will be further explored. Concluding remarks of this essay concern a summary of discussed implications of cancel culture from the view of netizens as well as suggestions for future prevention of such events.

Uppsatsen undersöker vilka attityder och värderingar som finns inom en grupp människor gällande röstens värde i förhållande till yttrandefriheten. Svaren har sökts genom att formulera frågeställningar om röstens värde och process utifrån Nick Couldrys (2010) röstteori. För att påvisa värderingar och attityder som råder används John Durham Peters (2005) förklaringar av teori om de tre intellektuella positioneringarna samt John Stuart Mills (1963) teori om yttrandefriheten. De teoretiska begreppen operationaliseras metodologiskt genom att nyttja en kvantitativ metod. Materialet i form av en enkätstudie samlades in via två Facebookgrupper som med stor sannolikhet bevittnat situationer i relation till yttrandefriheten bland digitala miljöer. De huvudsakliga slutsatserna för studien är att grupperna anser att dess röst inte alltid har ett värde bland digitala miljöer (Couldry 2010, s. 2). De sammanlänkade processerna som rösten är en del av ses viktiga att respektera enligt de två grupperna. Dock infinner sig en bristande respekt på sociala medier vilket resulterar i en rädsla att inte våga uttrycka sina åsikter. Därmed formas till viss del ett klimat som underminerar rösten (Couldry 2010, s. 2). Vidare identifieras olika positioneringar bland grupperna bland annat drag av modernister som motverkar yttrandefriheten genom att ta avstånd och värdera röster olika (Peters 2005, s. 2). Detta motverkar i sin tur framtida innovation och samhällsutveckling (Mill 1963, s.245). Slutligen ger studien ett intressant resultat som förhoppningsvis kan inspirera till en fortsatt forskning om röstens värde i förhållande till yttrandefriheten.

During the last few years, Cancel culture became a significant part of the social mediaculture. The new phenomenon aims to call out people or companies that have acted in a wayt hat does not go with the values of the consumers, which leads to a canceling. Companies got canceled and had to adjust their crisis communication to the consumers in order to repair the companies image. The consumers in question are mainly Millennials and Generation Z who tend to be ethical consumers that focus on social injustice. This leads to bigger pressure on companies to act and adjust their crisis communication accordingly. The purpose of this study is to investigate what kind of crisis communication could be used during a canceling. A statement from two canceled companies, Oatly and Starbucks, will be examined based on their crisis strategies and rhetorical strategies. Both companies claim that their actions in areas, such as climate change and social injustice, are correct and they try to convince thee thical consumers that they can be trusted as an ethical company. The study revealed that both companies used established strategies in their crisis communication, which did differ from one another. Both companies claim that their actions in areas, such as climate change and social injustice, are correct and they try to convince the ethical consumers that they can be trusted as an ethical company. Oatly communicated in a transcendent way and stood firmly by their actions, whereas Starbucks promised to change their actions.

This essay is one part of my Bachelor’s degree project, the other part being the dance performance OUR VISIONIS FROM HELL. / 34°10'26.6"N 118°39'50.4"W, which was presented in November 2022 at Stockholm University of the Arts. The work was inspired by certain events around the breakup between musician Kanye West and reality star Kim Kardashian. The text aims to further articulate, explain and discuss the topics of the piece, which were heartbreak, violence and pop culture in the arts, as well as referencing the American writers bell hooks and Susan Sontag and their approach to these issues. The essay also goes into the research, conversations and different thinking processes from and within the work. The text is written as a fictional letter to Kanye West and desires to question and criticize his behavior during the fall of 2022.

TikTok differs from how the media audience is used to seeing other social media platforms. When opening the app, the user does not see the friends you have decided to follow. Instead, you are faced with an algorithmically decided and never-ending feed of content personified individually for the specific user. In recent years, TikTok has become a prominent and rapidly growing platform, especially among younger media users. The emergence of TikTok usage among the youth implies an increased need for examining cultural phenomena that are performed on this platform. This study will be exploring the emergence of the online phenomenon known as mediated public shaming on TikTok by critically reviewing how young Swedish TikTok users are engaging in and experiencing the mediated public shaming that is occurring on TikTok as well as its effects by taking a theoretical departure from media literacy theories. The study is a qualitative reception study where the empirical material is conducted by one-to-one interviews with nine mundane Swedish TikTok users between the ages of 16–27. It was discovered that young TikTok users have a complex relationship with the mediated public shaming they face on TikTok and engage in the concept in a rather objective and reflective manner. They do, however, express concern that the design of the media, in conjunction with mediated public shaming, may allow for subconscious effects of their opinions. Looking forward, there is an indicated compelling need for continued research within the field, proposedly further research of online cultures’ roles in the determination of platform design and construction of algorithms.

Работа посвящена изучению влияния феномена «культуры отмены» на языковую личность. Материалом исследования послужили видеоролики с непосредственным участием Давида Бабаджаняна, размещенные на YouTube-канале «ИБ». В первой части работы рассматриваются теоретические аспекты, связанные с изучением языковой личности и феноменом «культуры отмены»: описаны теории языковой личности, а также методика ее описания – речевое портретирование; рассмотрен феномен «культуры отмены», его истоки и пути реализации в современном цифровом пространстве, а также были приведены примеры канселинга. Во второй части работы проведен анализ речевого портрета видеоблогера Д. Бабаджаняна. В ходе анализа речевого портрета видеоблогера были описаны три уровня его языковой личности: тезаурусный, мотивационный и вербально-семантический. Тезаурусный уровень языковой личности Д. Бабаджаняна был проанализирован путем описания лингвокогнитивной специфики его речевого портрета: были рассмотрены особенности основных компонентов концептосферы видеоблога «ИБ». В ходе лингвопрагматического анализа мотивационного уровня языковой личности Д. Бабаджаняна были описаны коммуникативные стратегии и коммуникативные тактики, используемые видеоблогером. На вербально-семантическом уровне было проведено описание стилистической специфики речевого портрета Д. Бабаджаняна, заключавшееся в анализе его речевой манеры. В ходе анализа каждого из уровней были выделены лингвистические маркеры «культуры отмены» в речи видеоблогера. Результаты исследования могут быть использованы в качестве иллюстративного материала, отражающего влияние феномена «культуры отмены» на языковую личность. / The work is devoted to the study of the influence of the phenomenon of "cancel culture" on linguistic personality. The material of the study is represented by D. Babadjanyan’s speech works from the videos of his, posted on the “IB” YouTube channel. The first part of the work covers theoretical aspects related to the study of linguistic personality and the phenomenon of "cancel culture": theories of linguistic personality are described, as well as the method of the description of linguistic personality – speech portrait; the phenomenon of "cancel culture" is explored, its origins and ways of implementation in the modern digital space, examples of canceling are also given. The second part of the work contains the analysis of the speech portrait of the videoblogger D. Babajanyan. The analysis includes the description of three levels of the linguistic personality of the videoblogger: thesaurus, motivational and verbal-semantic. The level of thesaurus of D. Babajanyan's linguistic personality was analyzed by describing the linguocognitive specifics of his speech portrait: the main components of the conceptual sphere of the videoblog "IB". In the course of a linguopragmatic analysis of the motivational level of a linguistic personality of D. Babajanyan his communicative strategies and communicative tactics are described. At the verbal-semantic level, a description of the style specifics of D. Babajanyan's verbal portrait was carried out, the analysis of videoblogger’s speech manner was conducted. Through the analysis of each level, linguistic markers of the "cancel culture" in the speech of the video blogger are identified. The results of the study can be used as illustrative material reflecting the influence of the phenomenon of "cancel culture" on the linguistic personality.

Cancel culture is a phenomenon that has grown out of today's digitalization. It could be described as a practice to counteract injustices in society by withdrawing support for, often, a public figure or company that has expressed or behaved unacceptably according to the majority of people. In recent years, cancel culture has been a recurring term when socio-political questions engage a larger group of citizens and most of them on social media find it socially unacceptable. However, is it possible that cancel culture is used in the same way on peers as on public figures? The purpose of this research study is to build an understanding of how Swedish young university students reason around cancel culture, as well as how their attitude may alter when it comes to public figures and peers, while also diving deeper into the internet phenomenon's significance on individuals' self-disclosure online.  The three following research questions were used:RQ1: How do Swedish young university students reason around canceling public figures? RQ2: How do Swedish young university students reason around canceling peers?RQ3: How does “Cancel Culture” influence an individual’s level of self-disclosure on social media?  In this study, an inductive and empirical approach through Grounded Theory was used, which is a qualitative method that enables you to study a particular phenomenon and discover new theories that are based on the collection and analysis of real-world data. One focus group with five participants was held to gain an understanding of participants' perceptions of the phenomenon and to find patterns in similarities and differences. Further, a total of six semi-structured interviews were held to gain deeper insight into how people think, reason, and feel about cancel culture. The data were first open-coded into 34 labels and later combined into six categories to be further analyzed. The conclusion of this study is that Swedish young university students have a nuanced mindset when it comes to cancel culture and that they do not necessarily use cancel culture online to influence. Instead, they talk to their closer circle because they suppose that they have a greater chance of making a difference in situations when they can motivate their opinions in real life. This reveals that those who represent the target group in our study have a low level of self-disclosure.

The rise of social media has emerged the social phenomena called cancel culture, where individuals hold influencers and endorsed brands accountable for perceived immoral actions. Cancel culture originates from a desire for social justice, where the consequences of those cancelled could be temporary and long-lasting reputational damage. The behavior to cancel is individually complex and has many different drivers influencing the performance of behavior.  Despite its significant impact, cancel culture within research is just in its early stage and has received limited research from a qualitative perspective. Previous studies have researched cancel culture through the perspective of consumer power, celebrity transgressions, psychological drivers, and social identity. Moreover, previous research has studied the intended behavior to cancel, not the actual performance to cancel. There still remains a research gap in understanding the personal and social drivers that influence the process to cancel an influencer and endorsed brand. By this, it led us to our research question: “What are the personal and social drivers that could influence the behavior to engage in cancel culture?”. With an aim to provide a deeper understanding of the complex phenomena of cancel culture between consumers, influencers and the endorsed brands. By examining drivers such as norms, beliefs, values and traits our study seeks to shed light on the drivers and how they influence the behavior of cancel culture.  The findings revealed an interesting insight from the consumer perspective. An actual cancellation has a higher chance of occurring if the influencer's action is perceived to cross an moral barrier of a follower. However, our study found that subjectivity increases complexity of the behavior as every individual has their own moral barrier. For example, if the action is perceived to clash with the followers’ personal beliefs and values, cancellation might occur, however another individual might not perceive the action to cross their moral barrier. Moreover, our study found that the desire of social belongingness and social acceptance has a significant role when making a decision to cancel. From our study we have revealed that cancel culture is both an individual and social phenomenon, where the influence of one's own personal drivers is just as influential as the social influence. More specifically, followers' idea of their self- concept is just as influential as the pressure from their social environment. In conclusion, personal and social drivers influence the decision to cancel an influencer and endorsed brands. However, as subjectivity matters, these personal and social drivers influence the process differently for each individual. From a managerial perspective, our findings could contribute to influencer marketing strategies trying to improve their selection process or response strategy if an cancellation would occur.

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La cancel culture (culture de l'annulation) est depuis quelques années une pratique en ligne populaire, mais controversée. Souvent par milliers, les utilisateurs de réseaux sociaux se rassemblent pour dénoncer publiquement et tenter de minimiser la présence en ligne d’une personnalité publique ou d’une entreprise qu'ils jugent problématique, leur fureur atteignant parfois des sommets impressionnants. Considérant l'impact de cette pratique, nous nous sommes interrogées sur la manière dont elle est perçue et vécue par les personnes qui y participent. Cette étude exploratoire définit d'abord la culture de l'annulation à travers diverses modalités numériques et sociohistoriques, puis analyse les réponses de 19 individus ayant participé à des annulations en ligne. Ces étapes ont permis de découvrir pourquoi les gens décident « d’annuler » et d'explorer les expressions de leurs participations. Finalement, c'est surtout le désir de défendre leurs propres valeurs et les communautés marginalisées qui sont ressorties comme les principales motivations de leurs annulations. / Cancel culture has been a popular, but controversial online practice for the past few years. Often by thousands, social media users gather to publicly denounce and attempt to minimise the online presence of a public figure or company they deem problematic, their fury sometimes attaining impressive heights. Considering the impact of this practice, it is worth asking how it is perceived and experienced by the people concerned. This exploratory study first defines cancel culture through diverse digital and sociohistorical modalities, and then analyses the responses of 19 subjects who have participated in online cancellations. These steps served to discover exactly why people canceled and to explore the expressions of their participations. In the end, it was mostly the desire to stand up for their own values and for marginalized communities that stood out as their main motivators for canceling.