Cancel Culture

Eve Ng is Associate Professor in the School of Media Arts and Studies and the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program at Ohio University, USA. Her interdisciplinary scholarship examines LGBTQ media, digital media cultures, and constructions of national identity. She has published in numerous journals,including Communication, Culture & Critique, Development and Change, Feminist Media Studies, Feminist Studies, International Journal of Communication, Journal of Film and Video, Popular Communication, and Transformative Works and Culture.

“This material provides an interesting yet complex genealogy of the different but overlapping areas of popular culture, digital activism and national politics. … what should we think about both progressive and conservative commentators in the US and elsewhere who have condemned the cancel culture? … . Are these essentially examples of the same thing? If not, what are the critical differences, and yet are there any underlying similarities between contextually different cancellations? … These questions, and other related problems … are answered in this book in an interesting and clear way.” (Jan Servaes, indepthnews.net, June 2, 2022)“Eve Ng’s new book … examines the phenomenon of ‘cancel culture’ from a critical media studies perspective, as both cancel practices (what people and institutional actors do) and cancel discourses (commentary about cancelling). … Her analysis moves beyond popular press accounts about the latest targets of cancelling or familiar free speech debates, and underscores the different configurations of power associated with ‘cancel culture’ in specific cultural and political contexts.” (Louisa Hann, New Books network, newbooksnetwork.com, May 11, 2022)

• 1. Introduction.- 2. Cancel Culture, Popular Media, and Fandom.- 3. Cancel Culture, Black Cultural Practice, and Digital Activism.- 4. Cancel Culture, U.S. Conservatism, and Nation.- 5. Cancel Culture and Digital Nationalism in Mainland China.- 6. Conclusion.