FROM MEMES TO MOVEMENTS: THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN THE GAMESTOP PHENOMENON AND PERIPHERAL SUBREDDITS IN DIGITAL FINANCIAL MOBILIZATION

Reddit studies have examined community formation and collective identity on individualsubreddits, analyzed the migration of users among subreddits, or provided activity metrics across the platform. Fewer studies have examined Reddit affordances on sub-community and topical levels. In my dissertation, I introduce the concept of ‘peripheral subreddits’, which are offshoots of more prominent subreddits, by studying peripheral subreddits of the GameStop movement, which initially occurred on r/WallStreetBets (r/Superstonk, r/GME, r/GMEJungle, and r/DDintoGME). I argue that analyzing the communicative activity occurring on peripheral subreddits may help communication scholars understand the growth of emerging movements that are anonymously social and ‘digital-first’. Specifically, I examine peripheral subreddits by focusing on three characteristics: topic inheritance (the provision of content themes from a more popular root subreddit), topic similarity (the shared interests among peripheral subreddits), and topic connectivity (the explicit or implicit associations among peripheral subreddits in the form of shared dialogue, activities, beliefs, or sentiments). I use computational methods such as topic modeling and sentiment analysis to analyze user activity and posts in these peripheral subreddits. Further, following the literature on digitally mediated stock market communities, I examine whether these peripheral subreddits engage in communicative processes such as aestheticization, virtualization, and de-realization, and reflexivities such as performativity, transactionality, and gamification.