Networked reality and technological power: argumentation and memory in Facebook memorials for Nelson Mandela

ABSTRACT

Networked technologies have distinct effects on argumentation and public memory, offering the possibility of more democratic engagement through shared discourse. This essay examines Facebook memorials for Nelson Mandela to assess the democratic potentials of networked memory. Following the death of Nelson Mandela on December 5 2013, people from around the world flocked to Facebook to write on memorial walls for the fallen leader. These users connected with others from around the globe, but their engagement was shallow and short-lived. This essay traces the argumentative force of memorial networks, arguing that technological structures and neoliberal activities imbue argumentation and public memory with the real-time values of networked culture. Site structure, graphical user interfaces, and algorithmic arrangement combine to promote consumption and connection rather than sustained critical discourse. Networked memorials promote public vernacular performances, but those performances remain constrained by time, space, and technological power.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital memorials
• networks
• assemblages
• technology
• algorithms

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Stephen Browne and Ekaterina Haskins for their insights early in the development of this essay, as well as the reviewers of this journal for their generous feedback and encouragement.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The language of this comment and others includes misspellings and problematic grammar. I am reproducing the comments as they appeared on Facebook. I have also chosen to omit posters’ names to protect their identity, despite these posts appearing in publicly accessible spaces. These comments were accessible without logging into Facebook.

2. In this essay, I have employed what one reviewer described as “digital rhetorical ethnography.” That is an apt description of this methodology: reflecting on rhetorical experiences over time, I took note of what became salient—what called my attention—and attempted to capture in text what I felt as I experienced the Facebook memorials.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jeremy David Johnson

Jeremy David Johnson (PhD, Penn State University) is a Center for Humanities and Information doctoral fellow at Penn State University.