UC Merced

Digital publics, while usually understood as allowing each member of the community to communicate with equal voice, are instead best conceptualized as driven by particular dominating users, who I term “intellectuals”, borrowing from an understanding of Gramsci. Through an exploration of reactionary and progressive YouTube video producers, Marxist publics, Tumblr and Twitter Feminists, and the Gamergate campaign, I explain how the tactics of counterpublic affect, conflict, and the juxtapolitical are used to allow communities to engage users and grow larger. This growth allows a publics’ intellectuals to spread their beliefs throughout digital networks, gaining fame and power through representation of their perspectives.