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Article published In: Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 14:5 (2015) ► pp.627–644

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Banal nationalism and belonging within the echoed imagined community

The case of New Zealand anthems on YouTube

 | Massey University |
Published online: 28 January 2016
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.14.5.01whi
Contexts for the performance of banal nationalism and belonging have changed markedly with the emergence of the Internet as a significant constituent and mediator of everyday activities. National anthems, depicted as echoed realizations of the imagined community, now exist in cyberspace, offering new public spaces for observing, participating in and responding to anthem spectacles. Drawing on the notion of ‘networked narratives’ (Page, Ruth, Richard Harper, and Maximiliane Frobenius. 2013. “From Small Stories to Networked Narrative: The Evolution of Personal Narratives in Facebook Status Updates.” Narrative Inquiry 23(1), 192–213. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), and previous research on modes of belonging (Jones, Paul, and Michal Krzyzanowski. 2008. “Identity, Belonging and Migration: Beyond Describing ‘Others’.” In Identity, Belonging and Migration, ed. by Gerard Delanty, Ruth Wodak, and Paul Jones, 38–53. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, Jones, Paul, and Michal Krzyzanowski. 2008. “Identity, Belonging and Migration: Beyond Describing ‘Others’.” In Identity, Belonging and Migration, ed. by Gerard Delanty, Ruth Wodak, and Paul Jones, 38–53. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) this paper analyses user comments posted on six YouTube sites featuring New Zealand anthems. The analysis reveals how the commenting affordances of YouTube act as sites of narrative production for both the assertion of belonging, the evaluation of others’ claims and also for the drawing of boundaries. Through this analysis of imagined communities in cyberspace, it is argued that web 2.0 spaces offer us a different way of accessing situated practices of banal nationalism and belonging, while highlighting the interface between the personal and the political in the complexities and contingencies of belonging.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Banal Nationalism And Anthems On Youtube
  • 3.Analytical Frameworks: Networked Narratives And Modes Of Belonging
  • 4.Data Sources And Analysis
  • 5.Findings And Discussion
    • 5.1Participating in the Spectacle
    • 5.2Networked narratives of belonging
      • 5.2.1Embodied attachment and the performativity of belonging
      • 5.2.2Narrating routes to belonging
      • 5.2.3Everyday affects
      • 5.2.4Longing as belonging
    • 5.3Desire and exclusion in the spectacle
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Note
  • References
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This list is based on CrossRef data as of 13 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

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