ABSTRACT
The last chapter advances an interdisciplinary and cross-sector focus to understand the digitally mediated mobilisation of status degradation. It provides a summative account of the empirical and conceptual contributions from the first five chapters. This allows readers to consider the interlinked dependencies between various actors involved in so-called online shitstorms. While it is tempting to reduce these instances to a single type of media user (like online mobs) or a single political context (like social justice warriors), the entanglements seen between various types of media users, platforms and states suggest a global tendency to disrupt social sanction. The court of public opinion offers a conceptual framework to address how diverse contexts make use of converging media. This chapter addresses key tensions and directions for subsequent research, noting how mediated shaming processes are either absorbed by prominent polarising trends, or rendered invisible as implicit and unspoken forms of social control. It also identifies empirical areas of study that signal emerging types of accounts, platforms and practices.
