SOCIAL MEDIA VISUAL NARRATIVES AND AN EXISTENTIAL PERSPECTIVE CULTURAL PRODUCTION

Abstract

n this paper, I argue that the creation and circulation of the
visual narratives within Facebook groups by Moroccan Facebookers largely
entail and substantiate a stronger process of cultural production that has its
own logic and praxis. I argue that this process of cultural production has two
major facets: an aestheticization of everyday life and promulgation of specific
modes of consciousness. Through the aestheticization of everyday life, I posit
that Moroccan youth’s acts of cultural production increasingly blur the formal
boundaries between the Internet, art, and popular culture; an aspect which
fundamentally empowers their creative online input. Through the
promulgation of specific modes of consciousness, I argue that the visual
narratives attempt to develop and enhance the cultural sensibilities which
better champion their perceptions and stances. Taken together, I claim that
these major manifestations of the process of cultural production, while being
deeply wedded to the Gramscian and Foucauldian perception of power
dynamics, set the tone for an underlying struggle over power and meaningmaking in the Moroccan society, thus seeking to intervene and exploit the gaps
and contradictions in these power dynamics in society.