Digital Contention in a Divided Society: Social Media, Parades and Protests in Northern Ireland

Writing on Northern Ireland post troubles society is a challenge in itself; identifying and deciphering the social media culture wars between multiple opposing parties within the Northern Ireland is even a bigger challenge that Paul Reilly tackled in his book Digital Contention in a Divided Society. The book is a solid case study of affective publics contested via the microblogging site Twitter between 2012-2016. This is a period that has serious methodological repercussions for social media researchers due to polarising Brexit debates and later campaigning in the UK and Northern Ireland. The study is pondering the question of agency where the social media has the power to escalate or deescalate the tensions caused by hybrid media systems (twitter, Facebook, print press, YouTube etc).