Abstract

For a few years now, the author has been tracking social media « trending topics », and monitoring those that become particularly contentious in the public mind and those that do not. This interest began in 2017, a year when there was real risk of a nuclear war between North Korea and the US. At that time, the issue got news coverage but its impact on social discourse was muted. The threat of nuclear war has returned again with the Russia/Ukraine War, and posts on this issue remain at moderate levels. This muted response is puzzling given the extraordinary stakes involved. Moreover, disaster via climate change — while more popular as a trending topic — is rarely linked to military activity; despite substantive scholarly research into this link. Why do some topics that pose a clear existential threat to humans also arouse mass concern, and others, relatively speaking, do not? This paper discusses various potential explanations.

Presenters

Finn Harvor
Associate Professor, English Interpretation and Translation, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul Teugbyeolsi [Seoul-T'ukpyolshi], South Korea

Details

Presentation Type

Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

Theme

New Media, Technology and the Arts

KEYWORDS

New Media, Nuclear War, Climate Change, Trending Topics

Digital Media

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