Cancel Culture: Calling Out or Bullshitting?
Illustration by Hannah Brunnschweiler
With the growing online sphere, it has never been easier to call out someone on their behaviour or even summon groups to help you on your ‘call out’. This action of ‘calling out’ has been labelled as the word cancel-culture which refers to the act of calling out and potentially removing support for a group or person (Atske & Atske, 2024; The Editors of ProCon, 2000). Imagine kids on a playground. One kid starts making fun of another kid and other kids join in. Now enlarge this by thousands or even millions. This is what is happening on the internet every day. But which of these ‘cancellations’ are truthful and which are bullshit?
Blurring the Line
Cancel culture has emerged as an effective way to hold individuals or groups accountable. However, there remains a fine line between accountability and performative outrage. When used for good cancel culture provides a voice to the marginalized and aims to make positive change. When used for malicious reasons it turns into a smear campaign driven by misinformation. Even ‘cancel-culture’ cases started by a good cause can lead to detrimental results when driven by misinformation.
Let’s take a look at the cancelling surrounding Dr. Seuss Enterpises in 2021. The company announced it would stop publishing six of Dr. Seuss’s books due to racially insensitive imagery and language. According to the company, these books were selected by a “panel of experts”. The internet was split on the topic. Some deemed this as a necessary step to remove harmful stereotypes from children’s books. Others named it an overreach of cancel culture and an unnecessary removal of classic children’s books. The case became big on social media as misinformation spread that all Dr. Seuss’s books were being cancelled (Hopper, 2024). This is a very light example of cancel culture but as seen in cancel culture cases the outrage overshadowed the original discussion. Optimistically, the discussion surrounding how different cultural identities could be presented in children’s books transformed into a battle led by social media users led by misinformation. The discussion could have beneficial outcomes for educating children however it turned into hate blurring the line between addressing concerns and performative outrage.
The Platforms and Theories
It is safe to say the way social media is built is one of the major drivers of cancel culture. Cancel culture can be more clearly explained by modern communication theories.
1. Agenda Setting Theory
Cancel culture is characterized by the rapid spread of posts that gather more and more views. As the post gathers more attention the cancelling power grows. This can be attributed to the agenda-setting power of media. One small incident can be spread to many using media platforms which then can become the ‘agenda’ (Foust, 2021). Agenda-setting theory suggests the media doesn’t tell us what to think but what to think about (McCombs, 2001). This highlights the power media has in which issues become important and amplified. Cancel culture operates by shifting the public opinion from the issue to the controversy. In this case, the media sets the agenda on what the public focuses on. For example, instead of focusing on why two celebrities are fighting the media shifts the focus to the fact that these celebrities are fighting. This is also what causes the ‘blurring line’. Instead of focusing and discussing an issue the attention is directed to performative outrage.
2. Echo Chambers and Polarization
The goal of social media platforms is for the user to stay on their platform as long as possible to generate more revenue. One way they achieve this is by creating echo chambers where the user is mostly exposed to posts that align with their beliefs (Cinelli et al., 2022). As users see posts that they agree with they lose understanding and acknowledgment of people with differing opinions. This creates polarization in the media environment. Cancel culture thrives in these echo chambers where viewpoints are marginalized. Constructive conversations are limited, and conflicts arise.
Can we define the line?
Defining the line between genuine accountability and performative outrage remains a challenge. While cancel culture can help bring attention to issues and give light to marginalized voices the same mechanisms that empower it can also be used to spread misinformation and hate. How social media operates also acts as an important component in how such cancel culture cases play out. To move beyond hate such discussion should be rooted in fact-checked information and be led by understanding and constructive criticism. To overcome such negative outcomes, we could benefit from restorative justice frameworks. The idea focuses on learning from mistakes and repairing the harm caused instead of relying on hate and punishment (Kirkwood, 2021). Social media platforms should also be held accountable for amplifying hate on their platforms.
Ultimately, cancel culture reflects the power social media has in groups taking collective action towards each other. Whether ‘cancel-culture’ is bullshit or not can be based on how we as users use that power.
References
Atske, S., & Atske, S. (2024, April 23). Americans and ‘Cancel culture’: where some see calls for accountability, others see censorship, punishment. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2021/05/19/americans-and-cancel-culture-where-some-see-calls-for-accountability-others-see-censorship-punishment/
Cinelli, M., Etta, G., Avalle, M., Quattrociocchi, A., Di Marco, N., Valensise, C., Galeazzi, A., & Quattrociocchi, W. (2022). Conspiracy theories and social media platforms. Current Opinion in Psychology, 47, Article 101407. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101407
Foust, J. (2021, December 13). The theory of cancelling – conjectures – medium. Medium. https://medium.com/conjectures/the-theory-of-cancelling-9d8d21387a9c
GeeksforGeeks. (2023, May 20). Agenda Setting Theory Overview and features [Online Image]. GeeksforGeeks. https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/agenda-setting-theory-overview-and-features/
Harris, E. A. (2021, March 4). 6 Dr. Seuss books will no longer be published over offensive images [Online Image]. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/04/books/dr-seuss-books.html
Hopper, T. (2024, October 2). Here are the “wrong” illustrations that got six Dr. Seuss books cancelled. Nationalpost. https://nationalpost.com/entertainment/books/here-are-the-wrong-illustrations-that-got-six-dr-seuss-books-cancelled
Kirkwood, S. (2021). A practice framework for restorative justice. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 63, 101688. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2021.101688
McCombs, M. (2001). Agenda-setting. Elsevier eBooks (pp. 285–288). https://doi.org/10.1016/b0-08-043076-7/04310-2
The Echo Chamber & Media Bias : i95 Business [Online Image]. (n.d.). https://i95business.com/articles/content/the-echo-chamber-media-bias-2009
The Editors of ProCon. (2000, January 1). Cancel culture | Pros, Cons, Debate, Arguments, Social Media, Internet, & Cancel. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/procon/cancel-culture-debate
Wang, S. (n.d.). PRO: Cancel culture keeps public figures accountable [Online Image]. The Arcadia Quill. https://arcadiaquill.com/12798/opinion/pro-cancel-culture-keeps-public-figures-accountable/
Vendi Havlucu Levi is a BSc Communication Science at the University of Amsterdam. She is interested in entertainment communication and the changing human relationships with the evolving digital world. In the future, she hopes to pursue a Masters degree within this field. In her free time, she enjoys watching reality tv shows and dancing. At Inter Vendi acts as a writing editor and helps managing media and outreach.
Hannah Brunnschweiler is bachelor’s student of Communication Science. As of now, she does not know what specific domain she wants to study in but is curious about persuasive or political communication. In her studies, she enjoys statistics and conducting research. Outside of university, she enjoys going on walks, listening to music or reading. She loves being creative, whether that is through photography or learning how to play a new song. For Inter, Hannah acts as a co-editor-in-chief as well as managing media and outreach.