Date and Time: July 2, 2019 (Tuesday) from 13:00 to 16:00
Location: Faculty of Engineering Building 2, Room 92B, Hongo Campus, University of Tokyo

Digital media has brought about new affordances for global audiences to engage in denunciatory practices against targets who are both in the public view and at the mercy of a networked publics. Among these affordances, users have gained the ability to witness objectionable events online and to respond to these “social injustices” via weaponised modes of visibility (Trottier, 2017). While such vigilance may serve anti-oppressive and progressive causes, so too it may be used to exercise regulations and social control to further persecute marginalised communities. Users generate and share content, exposing the targets and subjecting them to the judgement of vast audiences. The proposed workshop aims to situate the roles and meanings embedded within what may be understood as mediated courts of public opinion in the context of justice-seeking through exposure and shaming afforded by social media. By considering cases in a range of cultural and political contexts, it will be attentive to localised conditions in which denunciations are manifest.

13:00-13:30 Justice Through Receipts: Reconsidering the Court of Public Opinion
Presenter: Daniel Trottier (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
Discussant: Jason G. Karlin (The University of Tokyo)

13:30-14:00 Rediscovering the Soviet Snitching Culture in Russia’s Digital Sphere
Presenter: Rashid Gabdulhakov (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
Discussant: James Babb (The University of Tokyo)

14:00-14:30 From Peripheral to Mainstream: Digital Vigilante Culture in China
Qian Huang (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
Discussant: Shunsuke Nozawa (The University of Tokyo)

14:30-15:00 Online Vigilantism Toward Chinese Underclass Youths on Social Media Platforms
Jiaxi Hou (University of Tokyo)
Discussant: William Feeney (The University of Tokyo)

15:00-15:15 Break

15:15-15:45 Roundtable Discussion
Daniel Trottier (Chair)
James Babb, William Feeney, Rashid Gabdulhakov, Jiaxi Hou, Jason G. Karlin, Shunsuke Nozawa, Qian Huang

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The workshop is organized by Professor Jason G. Karlin in the Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, University of Tokyo.
Participation is free of charge, and we look forward to welcoming you!
For any enquiries, please contact: Jiaxi Hou (hou-jiaxi@g.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp)