Digital Media, Denunciation and Shaming

The Court of Public Opinion

Daniel Trottier, Qian Huang, Rashid Gabdulhakov

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English

Routledge
26 December 2025

Humanities; Cultural studies; Media studies; Social issues & processes; Sociology

Series: Routledge Focus on Communication and Society

This book offers a common set of concepts to help make sense of online shaming practices, accounting for instances of discrimination and injury that morally divide readers and at times risk unjust and disproportionate harm to those under scrutiny.

Digital media denunciation has become a primary form of expression and entertainment across media environments, with new socially desirable forms of accountability under movements such as #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter addressing longstanding forms of systematic and interpersonal abuse. Building on recent scholarship on shaming, surveillance and denunciation in fixed contexts, this study generates a cross-contextual and multi-actor account of practices like ‘cancel culture’, ‘doxing’ and ‘status degradation ceremonies’. It addresses instances of moral ambivalence by discussing how digital shaming becomes normalised and embedded across socio-cultural and institutional settings. The authors establish key actors and practices in online denunciations of individuals in a range of cases and contexts, including responses to COVID-19, political polarisation, and social justice movements, as well as more local and quotidian circumstances. They draw from empirical data including interviews with nearly 100 individuals targeted by mediated shaming and/or involved in these practices, as well as ethnographic observations of digital vigilantism and discourse analysis of press coverage and online comments relating to online shaming. Diverse applications and contexts, including China, the UK, Russia, and Central Asia, are considered, advancing an ambivalent understanding of media and denunciation that reconciles progressive and regressive practices, as well as celebratory and critical accounts of these practices.

This book is recommended reading for advanced students and researchers of online visibility and harm across media studies, cultural studies and sociology.

The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

This research was funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO), project number 276-45-004 and file number 36.201.097.

By: Daniel Trottier, Qian Huang, Rashid Gabdulhakov
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 138mm,
ISBN: 9781032602738
ISBN 10: 1032602732
Series: Routledge Focus on Communication and Society
Pages: 124
Publication Date: 26 December 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

1. Introducing the court of public opinion 2. Concerned individuals as participants and targets of shaming 3. Prominent users: (Micro-)celebrity and cancellation 4. Who runs the media? The role of platforms and press 5. The role of states: Police, polarisation and populism 6. Conclusion Index

Daniel Trottier is Associate Professor of Global Digital Media in the Department of Media and Communication, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Qian Huang is Assistant Professor in the Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, the Netherlands. Rashid Gabdulhakov is Assistant Professor in the Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, the Netherlands.