Rationale
Like older alternative media, alternative social media (ASM) are social media sites built to challenge centralized media power (Gehl, 2017, p. 343). In the case of social media, “centralized media power” typically means the Meta properties (e.g., Facebook, Instagram), Twitter, Youtube, Pinterest, or TikTok. It almost goes without saying that such platforms have gained incredible power over everything from democratic discourse, the political economy of the internet, and mediated subjectivity. They also have been implicated in terrible events, from the spread of disinformation (Van Dijck et al., 2021) to the normalization of ubiquitous surveillance (Zuboff, 2019) to ecological destruction (Hogan, 2015).
Critical scholarship, including work from the AoIR community, has been crucial in identifying the serious shortcomings of corporate social media (e.g. Gehl, 2017; Karppi, 2018; Lingel, 2017). But what do we know of active resistance to corporate social media? What alternatives have been developed, and what communities and practices have surfaced to challenge existing sociotechnical norms and values? Over the past decade, there have been many alternatives built in response to the problems and shortcomings of corporate social media. Some are long gone, such as Lorea, a system built by the indignados in Spain in the early 2010s, or Twister, a peer-to-peer Twitter alternative built by a Brazilian software developer in support of the Movimento Passe Livre protests. Some are gaining traction, such as Mastodon and the rest of the fediverse, which has been built in large part as a reaction to harassment and trolling on Twitter. In addition to left-leaning, progressive platforms, alternatives to centralized, corporate social media also also include right-wing social media as well, including far-right sites such as Gab, Parler and Truth Social. And there are no doubt some being built right now which will emerge before the upcoming AoIR conference.
Alternative social media is thus a complex area of inquiry, making for an exciting, challenging and interdisciplinary field of scholarship. This workshop is meant to accelerate alternative social media studies, not only as a topic but as a network of intellectual production. Scholars working in this area need to develop new theoretical, methodological, and ethical approaches outside of those developed in relation to study of corporate social media. We also need to get scholars in this field together to build and develop a robust, interdisciplinary research network. To these ends, we encourage and welcome research from different areas that address the need for and value of studying platforms, practices and communities that are often on the margins of the internet and internet studies.
Examples of research that would be of relevance are below (though this is by no means exclusive):
Narratives, analytical frameworks and ethnographies from alternative platforms
Comparative work analyzing platforms, whether between mainstream and alternative, or comparing alternative platforms
Dead and dying platforms, including alternatives that are no longer active (e.g., Twister, Lorea)
Analysis of the environmental impact of alternative social media
The relationship between alternative social media and social movements
Political mappings of alternatives, from right to left, or from libertarian to socialized
Content moderation and platform politics of alternative social media platforms
Provocations around regulation, community guidelines and industry norms
Because alternative social media are often developed or deployed outside the metropole, we are particularly interested in scholarship that examines platforms and communities in the Global South.
Participant guidelines
This workshop will adhere to AoIR’s Statement of Principles and Statement of Inclusivity, which is a commitment to academic freedom, equality of opportunity, and human dignity. This means that in this workshop, as in the rest of the AoIR conference, no harassment or discrimination will be permitted, and members must commit to the inclusion and recognition of all members.
Structure
This half-day (three hours including breaks) workshop will be organized into three blocks: introduction and networking; addressing the state of ASM as a field; and building an agenda for future scholarship.
References
Gehl, R. W. (2017). Alternative social media: From critique to code.In J. Burgess, A. E
Marwick, and T Poell (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Social Media, pp. 330–52.
Hogan, M. (2015). Data flows and water woes: The Utah Data Center. Big Data & Society, 2(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951715592429
Karppi, T. (2018). Disconnect: Facebook's affective bonds. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Lingel, J. (2020). An Internet for the people: The politics and promise of Craigslist. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Van Dijck, J., de Winkel, T., & Schäfer, M. T. (2021). Deplatformization and the governance of the platform ecosystem. New Media & Society, 14614448211045662. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448211045662
Zuboff S. (2019). The age of surveillance capitalism : the fight for a human future at the new frontier of power (First). PublicAffairs.
