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Accepted Paper:
Moral action in image-worlds: defending the rights of fictional and non-fictional others
Stephanie Betz
(Australian National University)
Paper short abstract:
This paper considers how Dragon Age fans mobilise concepts from 'real' world minority rights campaigns to defend fictional characters and asks: what does 'fictional' activism tell us about moral action in a world increasingly mediated by digital images?
Paper long abstract:
As our experience of the world becomes increasingly mediated by the 'torrent' of digital images circulated daily, the distinction between 'true' and 'fictional' events that demand a moral response is becoming increasingly blurry. In this paper, I draw upon my research with fans of the Dragon Age series of computer games on Tumblr, a social media channel, to consider how these fans mobilise concepts from 'real' world minority rights campaigns to defend fictional characters. Considering this mobilisation in the context of similar 'real world' activism that occurred on Tumblr during my fieldwork period, I ask: what does this type of 'fictional' activism reveal of the wider field of contemporary social action taken in response to geographically distant events? What can such resonances tell us about contemporary moral action in a world where distant others are increasingly encountered as digital images?