Media reporting of cancel culture: a narrative anatomy of Billie Eilish’s cancellation

Definitions of cancel culture are contested; its meanings and effects are understood in often polarised ways as either an empowering tool for social justice or a dangerous demonising trend. Social media are central to cancel culture as the source of “incriminating” material, the channels through which call-outs and cancellations occur, and sites of meta discussion, debate, and commentary on cancellation, with posts often referred to in reports of cancellation events. This article examines how these dynamics operate in media reporting of the purported “cancellation” of US singer-songwriter Billie Eilish in response to the viral sharing of a video of her mouthing a racist slur when she was 14 years old. Combining Annemarie Mol’s conceptualisation of “ontological politics” with a narrative analysis approach, we analyse news media articles to identify how cancel culture emerges through an assemblage of encounters between media reporting of story, plot, and character, social media data, “trolling” practices, identity politics, and breaches of contemporary social norms. We term this process a “narrative anatomy of cancel culture” and consider the role and implications of news media in producing “cancel culture” as a contemporary socio-cultural phenomenon.