2. Presentation Outline
Nationalism and Internet: Basic Approaches
Reflections on Nationalism and Social Media
Survey and Examples
Shortcomings
Concluding Remarks
3. Statement
Social media extension to reality
Nationalism is real, at least discursively
Therefore social media “extend” nationalism
Nationalist sentiment + use of social media =
reframed, arguably advanced concept of
nationalism
4. Nationalism and Internet: Basic
Approaches
Erica Schlesinger Wass, Addressing the world:
national identity and Internet country code
domains, Rowman & Littlefield, 2003
Contested domain names: the case of
Macedonia: Greek vs. RM Macedonian
domains, Macedonian and Bulgarian VMRO
domains
Sociological approach: Eriksen and Bakker
5. Nationalism and Internet: Basic
Approaches
T. H. Eriksen: the Internet (media) can
nevertheless be instrumental in creating and re-
creating a shared, collective past among its
users. Examining the role of the Internet in
building and maintaining national identities may
thus enhance our understanding of the
character and the enduring power of national
myths and symbols.
6. Nationalism and Social Media
Major changes brought by social media, both
on individual and social level
Fragmentation, decentralization, and the
emergence of user-generated content
Social networking, virtual individuals and virtual
“collectives”
Nationalist PR and brainstorming via social
media
7. Nationalism and Social Media
Social media related to the emergence and
development of strong and durable forms of
nationalism-from-below, or a genuine
decentralized form of nationalist discourse
notably different from everything before
No need for nationalist leaders, elite, budget,
headquaters to produce nationalist propaganda
Social Media as an asset to nationalist
mobilization
8. Nationalism and Social Media
The modernist/constructivist/instrumentalist
approaches to the nation are challenged with
the idea of decentralization as there is no more
just one single and most important agency of
the nationalist mobilization; there are plenty and
they have the possibility to reach anyone.
The ethnosymbolist approach is challenged too:
it is not THE exclusive single shared narrative
that prevails as a crucial factor of mobilization,
but the one which the Wikipedia contributors
agree upon.
9. Nationalism and Social Media
Nation reshaped: one of the basic premises
was that the nation is imagined because its
members will never meet the rest of their
fellows. However, with the possibility that social
networking offers, it is very simple for people
that share interests to find each other, and
befriend each other, even though it is online.
The imagined “horizontal friendship” of the
nation gradually becomes very concrete – yet
no less imagined.
10. Facebook Nationalism: A Survey
(Methodological shortcomings)
98 respondents
85% said that were invited to a
nationalist/patriotic group/page/cause
Only 4% said they have never seen
nationalistic/patriotic content being posted
More than half see such contents frequently
14. 50K Serbs Get Ready to “Welcome”
Croats. Time needed: 10 Days
15. General Impressions: Facebook
More support for “United Macedonia” than
“United Ireland”
=> Most of nationalist content originates from
SEE?
Radical and hate groups sanctioned fast (ex.
Knife, Wire, Srebrenica; Holocaust Deniers)
16. Shortcomings
Generalization of what is nationalism
Replace nationalism with _______ and you
might get similar results
Lack of content analysis
17. Concluding Remarks
Nationalism not outdated even in post-industrial
age
Social media content not necessarily
progressive
The two (can) coexist
Social media an asset to nationalism
Surging nationalism 2.0?