Open AccessCART NARCS AND THE ENGINEERING OF SOCIAL SHAMING AS ENTERTAINMENT
Author(s) -
CJ Reynolds,
Nicholas John
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
selected papers of internet research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2162-3317
DOI - 10.5210/spir.v2021i0.12232
Subject(s) - cart , social media , entertainment , anger , advertising , psychology , internet privacy , computer science , social psychology , business , art , visual arts , world wide web , history , archaeology
With around 160 videos, 160,000 subscribers, and 18 million views,Cart Narcs is an “elite” YouTube channel. The typical Cart Narcs YouTube video is framedaround the idea of shaming people who do not return their shopping carts. The eponymousNarc, Agent Sebastian, patrols grocery store parking lots looking for miscreants to confrontand film. When he spots a target, he runs towards them making siren noises. "Cart Narcs!" heshouts. "That's not where the cart goes!" While seemingly related to establishedentertainment genres featuring real people in everyday situations and to prank videos, weidentify significant features in Cart Narcs videos that distinguish them: the lack of adebrief; the positioning of the Cart Narc as the "nice guy" in the interaction; and the CartNarc’s claim to the moral high ground. These features each remove a redemptive momentpresent in analogous types of content, resulting in a communicative interaction engineeredto anger people. We ask how Agent Sebastian produces such a powerful emotional response tohis seemingly innocent request that people return their shopping cart and what the logic ofthis form of media content might signify. Cart Narcs is a revealing case study in how theeconomy-driven logic of participation produces undesirable types of content when itoverwhelms or wholly replaces social and aesthetic logics. Cart Narcs videos are a hybridgenre concoction that trade people's anger for monetized views, cloaked by the pretense of asocial mission.