Affective-Discursive Approach in Digital Activism Research: Reflections on Working with Social Media Data in the Transnational Sphere

Wu, Chunyan, Sun, Yu and Peng, Altman Yuzhu (2026) Affective-Discursive Approach in Digital Activism Research: Reflections on Working with Social Media Data in the Transnational Sphere. Sage Research Methods: Doing Research Online.

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Abstract

This case study explores the methodological design and practical execution of a project that examines how overseas Chinese activists use X (formerly Twitter) to coordinate “distant witnessing” against China’s nationalist narratives in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Drawing on 1,675 tweets from a key activist-run account, the study combines analysis of discursive structures and prediscursive affective gestures, such as translation, image highlighting and hash-tagging, to analyze how emotional and political meanings are produced, circulated, and contested to scaffold a participatory project aimed at holding the Chinese Party-state accountable. The case focuses on the methodological complexities of working with multimodal, translingual, and politically sensitive data in volatile digital environments. It reflects on the ethical dilemmas of working with public yet high-risk content, the methodological recalibrations required by platform instability, and the interpretive labor involved in tracing affect across text and image. Readers will gain insight into the use of affective-discursive frameworks in critical digital research, as well as practical strategies for managing ethical, technical, and reflexive challenges in projects that analyze activist-curated social media content. The case offers a flexible, context-sensitive blueprint for researchers and students working at the intersection of affect, discourse, activism, and transnational politics.

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