ERMeCC Lunch Seminar

When political actors mobilize national identity to sow division and mistrust, nationalism’s persuasive appeal suddenly gets noticed. Yet, on a daily basis, a myriad of symbols and practices inconspicuously naturalize nationalism as a framework for “understanding and interpreting experience [and] making sense of the world”(Brubaker et al, 2006, p. 207). Mass media have been part and parcel of the reproduction of nationalism, but the role social media play in these processes requires more attention. This presentation zooms in on Instagram, asking how platform vernaculars (Keller, 2019) entice and naturalize both banal (Billig, 1995) and everyday forms of nationalism (Fox, 2017; Hearn & Antonisch, 2018). Using the empirical findings of a qualitative content analysis of 100 posts collected across the two most popular hashtags about Romania, the presentation will engage in a preliminary discussion of the consequences of posting practices and Instagram functionality for the (re)production of nationalism on a seemingly global (and globalizing) platform.