
Digital Media, Denunciation and Shaming
The Court of Public Opinion
Routledge (Publisher)
1st Edition
Published on 20. June 2024
Book
Hardback
124 pages
978-1-032-60272-1 (ISBN)
Description
This book offers a common set of concepts to help make sense of online shaming practices, accounting for instances of discrimination and injury that morally divide readers and at times risk unjust and disproportionate harm to those under scrutiny.
Digital media denunciation has become a primary form of expression and entertainment across media environments, with new socially desirable forms of accountability under movements such as #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter addressing longstanding forms of systematic and interpersonal abuse. Building on recent scholarship on shaming, surveillance and denunciation in fixed contexts, this study generates a cross-contextual and multi-actor account of practices like 'cancel culture', 'doxing' and 'status degradation ceremonies'. It addresses instances of moral ambivalence by discussing how digital shaming becomes normalised and embedded across socio-cultural and institutional settings. The authors establish key actors and practices in online denunciations of individuals in a range of cases and contexts, including responses to COVID-19, political polarisation, and social justice movements, as well as more local and quotidian circumstances. They draw from empirical data including interviews with nearly 100 individuals targeted by mediated shaming and/or involved in these practices, as well as ethnographic observations of digital vigilantism and discourse analysis of press coverage and online comments relating to online shaming. Diverse applications and contexts, including China, the UK, Russia, and Central Asia, are considered, advancing an ambivalent understanding of media and denunciation that reconciles progressive and regressive practices, as well as celebratory and critical accounts of these practices.
This book is recommended reading for advanced students and researchers of online visibility and harm across media studies, cultural studies and sociology.
The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
This research was funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO), project number 276-45-004 and file number 36.201.097.
Digital media denunciation has become a primary form of expression and entertainment across media environments, with new socially desirable forms of accountability under movements such as #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter addressing longstanding forms of systematic and interpersonal abuse. Building on recent scholarship on shaming, surveillance and denunciation in fixed contexts, this study generates a cross-contextual and multi-actor account of practices like 'cancel culture', 'doxing' and 'status degradation ceremonies'. It addresses instances of moral ambivalence by discussing how digital shaming becomes normalised and embedded across socio-cultural and institutional settings. The authors establish key actors and practices in online denunciations of individuals in a range of cases and contexts, including responses to COVID-19, political polarisation, and social justice movements, as well as more local and quotidian circumstances. They draw from empirical data including interviews with nearly 100 individuals targeted by mediated shaming and/or involved in these practices, as well as ethnographic observations of digital vigilantism and discourse analysis of press coverage and online comments relating to online shaming. Diverse applications and contexts, including China, the UK, Russia, and Central Asia, are considered, advancing an ambivalent understanding of media and denunciation that reconciles progressive and regressive practices, as well as celebratory and critical accounts of these practices.
This book is recommended reading for advanced students and researchers of online visibility and harm across media studies, cultural studies and sociology.
The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
This research was funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO), project number 276-45-004 and file number 36.201.097.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Postgraduate and Undergraduate Advanced
Dimensions
Height: 222 mm
Width: 145 mm
Thickness: 11 mm
Weight
300 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-032-60272-1 (9781032602721)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Daniel Trottier | Qian Huang | Rashid Gabdulhakov
Digital Media, Denunciation and Shaming
The Court of Public Opinion
Book
12/2025
1st Edition
Routledge
€36.60
Shipment within 10-20 days

Daniel Trottier | Qian Huang | Rashid Gabdulhakov
Digital Media, Denunciation and Shaming
The Court of Public Opinion
E-Book
06/2024
1st Edition
Routledge
€25.99
Available for download

Daniel Trottier | Qian Huang | Rashid Gabdulhakov
Digital Media, Denunciation and Shaming
The Court of Public Opinion
E-Book
06/2024
1st Edition
Routledge
€25.99
Available for download
Persons
Daniel Trottier is Associate Professor of Global Digital Media in the Department of Media and Communication, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Qian Huang is Assistant Professor in the Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, the Netherlands.
Rashid Gabdulhakov is Assistant Professor in the Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, the Netherlands.
Qian Huang is Assistant Professor in the Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, the Netherlands.
Rashid Gabdulhakov is Assistant Professor in the Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, the Netherlands.
Content
1. Introducing the court of public opinion
2. Concerned individuals as participants and targets of shaming
3. Prominent users: (Micro-)celebrity and cancellation
4. Who runs the media? The role of platforms and press
5. The role of states: Police, polarisation and populism
6. Conclusion
Index
2. Concerned individuals as participants and targets of shaming
3. Prominent users: (Micro-)celebrity and cancellation
4. Who runs the media? The role of platforms and press
5. The role of states: Police, polarisation and populism
6. Conclusion
Index