Digital media have opened up possibilities to media productions that promote various forms of solidarity action and draw attention to cases of injustice. The growing presence of activist media and solidarity campaigns point to new emerging forms of mediated solidarity. However, there is no guarantee that expressions of solidarity and compassion will ever find their way to the actual cause and make a difference. The circuits of communicative capitalism on social media tend to create a loop of sharing of solidarity that may appear as connective, yet makes no relevant connections in terms of social change.

In this talk, Professor Nikunen will discuss these contradictions of media solidarities in the digital age: the ways in which affective economy shapes media productions of solidarity and social justice in the current data-driven digital media environment. This talk draws from the new book Media Solidarities: Emotions, Power and Justice in the Digital Age (Sage 2019).

Kaarina Nikunen is Professor of Media and Communication Research at Tampere University Finland. Her areas of expertise include digital culture, emotions and affectivity, solidarity, migration, race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality. Her current research projects investigate racism in the hybrid media system and emotions in the refugee debate. She is the author of Media Solidarities: Emotions, Power and Justice in the Digital Age (Sage 2019) and co-editor of Media in Motion: Cultural Complexity and Migration in the Nordic Region (Ashgate 2011) and Pornification: Sex and Sexuality in Media Culture (Berg 2007).