Conference by Jefferson Pooley
The conference will focus on the individual's tug-of-war over the choice of his or her image on social networks. "Between the ideal of authenticity and that of performance, the balance is difficult to find.
The conference will focus on the individual's tug-of-war over the choice of his or her image on social networks. "Between the ideal of authenticity and that of performance, the balance is difficult to find. ENS Paris-Saclay - Bâtiment sud, 3e étage, Laboratoire ISP, 3G07 ENS-PARIS-SACLAY webmaster@ens-paris-saclay.fr Europe/Paris public
Date: 13 June 2023 from 11:00 to 12:30
Venue: South Building, 3rd floor, ISP Laboratory, 3G07
Speaker: Jefferson Pooley
Registration: those wishing to attend the conference are invited to make themselves known to philippe.fontaine [at] ens-paris-saclay.fr (Philippe Fontaine) before 20 May 2023.
Abstract
The lecture and discussion will be in English.
This conference begins with a premise, that the self on social media is suspended between authenticity and performance. The dilemma, which may be an opportunity too, is that the "authentic" self must be performed—enacted, with forethought and even calculation. To stage manage oneself, then, is to violate a tenet of authenticity: that expression should be spontaneous and unrehearsed. The conference develops this contradiction, first, with reference to the performance of self in face-to-face life, in the context of twentieth-century consumer culture. A second, broader context is the modern emergence of the authenticity ideal itself, alongside the competing ideal of self-possession—treating oneself as an object to be worked on. The tension between, and the blending of, these two ideals is set in sharp relief on social media, owing to most platforms' performative control. The result is calculated authenticity: Be true to yourself; it is to your strategic advantage.
Biography
Jefferson Pooley is Professor of Media & Communication at Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA.
He works on the history of media research, the history of social science, and consumer culture.
He collaborates regularly with Philippe Fontaine, with whom he has just published "Society on the Edge: Social Science and Public Policy in the Postwar United States" with Cambridge University Press (2021, xiv-403 p.) and is creating an international journal with Pennsylvania University Press (forthcoming 2024).
He is also the author of James W. Carey and Communication Research: Reputation at the University's Margins (Peter Lang, 2016), The History of Media and Communication Research (Peter Lang, 2008), and Media and Social Justice (Palgrave, 2011).
Pooley is director of mediastudies.press, a scholar-led open access book and journal publishing house.