Cancel culture is a socio-political movement that aims to financially punish or ostracize a person from the public sphere due to a transgression. Such offenses range from criminal acts to the public expression of controversial opinions. In response, digital activism coalesces into a socio-political force that seeks to shame, silence, or punish the offending individual. This study seeks to understand the agonistic reputational wrangle facilitated by cancel culture using an original theoretical framework that combines the rhetorical paradigm from public relations with deviance theory from sociology and media studies. Specifically, this study analyzes the cancellation and reputational repair strategies of four celebrities—Louis C.K., Logan Paul, Jussie Smollett, and J.K. Rowling. It utilizes large-scale social media sentiment analysis to reveal varying degrees of reputational decay and recovery. The study shows that factors impacting the severity of cancellation and the likelihood of reputational recovery include distinguishing between criminal acts and controversial opinions, as well as social variables and the strength of a parasocial relationship between a celebrity and their fandom.

取消文化是一种社会政治运动，旨在对因违法行为而进行经济惩罚或将其排除在公共领域之外的人。此类犯罪行为的范围从犯罪行为到公开表达有争议的意见。作为回应，数字行动主义凝聚成一股社会政治力量，试图羞辱、压制或惩罚冒犯者。本研究试图使用一个原始的理论框架来理解取消文化所引发的名誉争议，该框架将公共关系的修辞范式与社会学和媒体研究的偏差理论相结合。具体来说，本研究分析了四位名人——路易斯·CK、洛根·保罗、朱西·斯莫利特和 JK·罗琳的取消和声誉修复策略。它利用大规模社交媒体情绪分析来揭示不同程度的声誉衰退和恢复。研究表明，影响取消的严重程度和恢复声誉的可能性的因素包括区分犯罪行为和有争议的观点，以及社会变量和名人与其粉丝之间的准社会关系的强度。