Inclusivity as a Power Narrative in the Cryptocurrency Market

Abstract

Abstract:The cryptocurrency market is gaining adoption at increasing rates as more and more people usesocial media and join online communities to keep themselves updated when following themarket either as discourse observers/consumers or active content creators. Social media appearsto be the major source of information one needs before investing in the cryptocurrency market.The factors that determine the pricing and the fluctuation of the market are complex and there isongoing research, discussion and effort taking place to predict the market.The research examines data found and collected on the most popular YouTube crypto-relatedchannels with the highest number of followers along with data collected from the most followedFacebook public groups. The discourse produced by the main presenters (YouTubers/influencers)is analyzed from a critical discourse analysis perspective. Existing power narratives amongcrypto influencers are explored and broken down into themes such as inclusivity, community andidentification. Also, a close examination of the circulating user-generated-content takes place onboth the examined social media. This paper is an exploration of inclusivity as a power narrative between crypto influencersforming online communities with an audience mainly identifying as investors. It also analysesthe social media users’ responses to these themes of the narratives and it finally compares thetwo examined social media with a focus on the way inclusivity, community and identificationfacilitate the reproduction of these narratives.