HARD ROCK HALLELUJAH

POLITICKING ON THE INTERNET WITH MONSTERS

TAPIO HÄYHTIÖ & JARMO RINNE

Politics emerging from the monstrous band

Anticipated miracle : The Finnish Victory of Eurovision song contest

Eurovision as a part of Finnish identity constructing

From zero points to overwhelming victoryNew national heroesHow the monster rock band Lordi became

a political topic?

From conservative comments to apotheosis

March 2006 winning of the Finnish Eurovision televoting selection: accusation of satanism and sacrilege against Finnish reputation

May 20th 2006 the victory of Eurovision song contest’s final – new direction of Lordi-politics

Politicised pictures A

• Mr. Lordi’s strong appeal to media for not publishing unmasked pictures of the band

• Commercial photo hunt: within few days unmasked photos published in European media. In Finland: 23.5. Aamulehti (daily newspaper), 24.5. Seitsemän päivää (7 days: gossip magazine), Hämeen Sanomat (daily newspaper), and 26.5. Katso! (LOOK!:gossip magazine),

Politicised pictures B

• Shock reaction among the citizens – expressions of disappointment and anger on the Net.

• Online discussions raised a web movement targeting the press

• Gossip magazines and their publishers attacked more intensively than daily papers

Political action

emerges in time and spaces action = set of intended acts in certain space

with temporal duré and direction Meanings and direction of action unfold

through time – from now/present towards future (Objective time)

What has been passed through nothingness and emerges into being and through becoming manifests into real being Action takes place in temporal-spatial reality

PASSING OF THE OBJECTIVE TIME (Hegel)

BEING (Sein)

BECOMING (Werden)

BEING (Sein) EMERGING BEING THERE (Entstehen) (Dasein) PASSING (Vergehen)

NOT-THING (Nichts)

Subjective time and political action A

Action is not just a single, atomistic act, but interconnected set of acts in time through which actors are promoting their preferences, priorities, goals, and values

The essential feature in acting politically is to conquer the future (Arendt 1958, Lappalainen 1995); the purpose is to win peoples’ hearts

In subjective time experience related to political action the role of making political judgement is stressed directs the course of action

Subjective time and political action B

In a subjective time experience political actor consider the direction, achievements and ends of their respective action in interplay in which the past experience history and future’s expectation horizons are fusing within the subjective consciousness. Thus, on the focus is the subject and the nature of her/his time experience in the past-present-future continuum. This happens in an objective now/ present, in which the decisive political judgement is conducted

Subjective time experience: the moment of political judgement

PAST PRESENT FUTURE (TO COME)

RETENTION PROTENTION

lived time flows through subject (adapted from van Gelder 1999, changes JR)

Subjective consciousness

Time for political action

distinction between kronos-time and kairos-time. Kronos = chronological, measurable time (objective); kairos = a moment to act, auspicious/golden opportunity to achieve desirable outcomes

The kairos-moment in Lordi-case: repressed dislike towards gossip-journalism outbursted because of the publishing unmasked photos of the monster band

The defamation of Lordi offers an opportunity to express personal opinion and aversion about profit hunting commercial journalism

New forms of action A

The online forum of the Hämeen Sanomat closed for a day because of exceptionally active discussion and contacting (Swarming); net petition against the paper approximately 1700 names. Aamulehti manage to avoid the attacks

New forms of action B

Massive swarming on the Net: boycott 7 Days – petition

220 000 names on the Net–petition in few days

Boycott 7 site: links to cancellation of the Aller magazine subscriptions; links to 7 days’ discussion forum, editorial email, and web feedback form, personal contact information of the editorial staff, a template how to refuse direct marketing

New forms of action C:

VOTELORDI.ORG mobilised Turn the Seven Upside down / Turn the Allers Upside down

Site also encouraged people to send photos of their activity in this campaign

Yahoo’s Flickr site 153 photos submitted in votelordi’s photo folder

The campaing was succesful: Seven Days were turned upside down in their selling stands (the snowball-effect)

New forms of action D:

VIRTUAL SIT-INS targeted to the sites of Seven Days and Look!

Constant page clicking and reloading, filling the discussion forums and feedback forms blocked user interfaces during few days after publishing the unmasked Lordi-photos

Public pressure towars the editorial staff of the Seven Days and advertisers of the magazine – filling up the e-mailboxes

Seven Days considered legal acts against Lordi-activists

ACTION EMERGED ON THE ACTION EMERGED ON THE NETNET

Appeal to join the demonstration Appeal to join the demonstration against Seven Days were against Seven Days were manifested on many websites: 3 manifested on many websites: 3 people showed uppeople showed up

Most intensive phase of the Most intensive phase of the protest was in the end of May. In protest was in the end of May. In June protest passed awayJune protest passed away

Temporal aspects of Internet-Temporal aspects of Internet-politics Apolitics A In real world acting or sharing something In real world acting or sharing something

together requires co-presence, i.e. sharing together requires co-presence, i.e. sharing the same space simultaneously in the the same space simultaneously in the company of others (Nowak & Biocca, 2003)company of others (Nowak & Biocca, 2003)

The computer mediated technology The computer mediated technology extends both spatial and temporal extends both spatial and temporal limits/boundaries of co-presence. The limits/boundaries of co-presence. The emergence of a virtual social realms and emergence of a virtual social realms and domains provide individuals a chance to domains provide individuals a chance to establish new kind of we-relationships in a establish new kind of we-relationships in a new mutually shared meaning context new mutually shared meaning context (Zhao 2004) The co-presence takes places (Zhao 2004) The co-presence takes places from different locations and could be from different locations and could be temporally not-coincidental, i.e. it happens temporally not-coincidental, i.e. it happens in different times. in different times.

Temporal aspects of Internet-Temporal aspects of Internet-politics Bpolitics B The dislocation of space from temporality The dislocation of space from temporality

allows people to share a same virtual allows people to share a same virtual space without necessarily sharing real-time space without necessarily sharing real-time co-presence. That is to stay in certain place co-presence. That is to stay in certain place where their where their being therebeing there converge but their converge but their nownow diverge (especially this is the case in diverge (especially this is the case in on-line campaigns and discussions). on-line campaigns and discussions). (Converted from Zhao 2004)(Converted from Zhao 2004)

The nature of co-presence is extended: The nature of co-presence is extended: virtual virtual nowsnows may be asymmetrical may be asymmetrical respectively with objective respectively with objective nows; nows; for for instance remarks and commenting the instance remarks and commenting the online-discussion – latency in responsesonline-discussion – latency in responses

Temporal aspects of Internet-Temporal aspects of Internet-politics Cpolitics C Blurred temporal boundaries Blurred temporal boundaries

and fragmented time constraints and fragmented time constraints make the political action on the make the political action on the Net more fluid in comparison to Net more fluid in comparison to the traditional political activitythe traditional political activity

On the Net-politics the present On the Net-politics the present is extended; past and future are is extended; past and future are somehow overlapping (enables somehow overlapping (enables virtual time-travelling)virtual time-travelling)

Lordi protest as an example of the New Politics A

NEW POLITICS - activity by the people instead of activity for the people: action-oriented politics. DIY-Do it Yourself approach

Individualisation and globalisation: Political environment fractures into diverse, complex and multi-spatial networks

Course of action and consequences are not necessarily separable from the action - participative action itself might be the THING

Internet’s meet-up places - individuals come together to deliberate their public concerns and to oppose any arbitrary and oppressive exercise of power (‘talk of the public’ John Keane)

Lordi protest as an example of the New Politics B

DIY-elements of the Lordi-protest: reacting and taking responsibility of

journalistic choicesPersonally felt offence – lack of respect

of privacy and disparaging the national hero

Emerge of new carnevalist styles of political action

Lordi protest as an example of the New Politics C

Targeted against commercial publishing policy of journalism – issue-specific politicking: Snowball-effect in spreading of the protest -emerged from micro-publics

Protest organised from swarming to an individualised collective network employing creative styles of resistance

Political consumerism on the Net A

Lordi protest was succesful: Advertisers recalled ads

Unsubscrising the orders of Seven DaysThe selling of the lordi-issue was low, and

magazines were pulled out in some storesPublic opinion made Aller magazines,

Seven days and LOOK! to apology from Lordi

Political Consumerism on the Net B

- A form of new politics: markets and consumption as a polical tool and arena

- Narrow perspective: focus on single shopping decisions (boycott/buycott) based on political/ethical subjective judgements

- Broad perspective: civic political action that politicises market practices (actors, consumption, market society). - Discursive consumerism: global-social justice, human rights, sustainable development, animal rights, ecological lifestyles etc. Also one-target campaigns.

- Political consumerism refers also to alternative modes of consumption: open source movement, net piracy, fair trade movement, ethical banking system, environmental labels, dumpster diving etc.

Political Consumerism on the Net C The Lordi swarming as political consumerism: 7 Days’

Lordi-issue ”was the decisive act from the magazine that I have always detested. Say no to this kind of news- and money-making”. (Boycott Seven Days -petition.)

Critically judging citizen-consumers politicised the shopping of gossip magazines and the publishing practices of commercialised journalism on the micro-public spheres of the Internet

With the Internet public spheres the political consumerism has become more salient, because individualised citizen politics has become easier and traditional mass-media may also give attention to the net-publics.

Political Consumerism on the Net D

The Lordi protest=individualized collective action (Michele Micheletti, 2003) emerging outside the formal organisations/institutions is characteristic to the political consumerism

Personal concerns, responsibility-taking and subjective choices motivate the projects of political consumerism

A precondition of the cumulation of consumerist conflicts are various public spheres → enables loose networks around issues

Creative Lordi-campaigns manifests that ad hoc-publics on the Net may be crucial for the politicisation of everyday-problems attached to the consumption

Conclusion A: Action emerges through time

World between subjects constitutes Interworld → intersubjectivity, mutual tuning in, and sharing the same lived temporal horizon(Crossley 1996)

Internet mediated technology makes it possible for an individual to enter on-line discussions or virtual space whenever she/he wants → producing individualized collective action and virtual belongness → individualized collective identity

Conclusion B: Action through Internet-time On the Internet-politics present is extended. Political

judgements need to be made in short time. Extended present enables rethinking the course of

actions at the time of recursive present Multiple asymmetrical now-times may cause the

exponential cumulation of the political conflict: The case of Lordi-protest was a cumulative process in temporal sense, and also an examplary case of individualized collective consumeristic political action taking place on the Net-environment.