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Archive for 2013

Issue 22: Trolls and the Negative Space of the Internet

By ⋅ December 30, 2013 ⋅ Post a comment

Troll Theory? We only talk about trolls inside a polemic. To aver that someone is trolling is to allege that their participation conceals the aims of their disruption; by implication, they are to be excluded or dismissed. The Internet’s folk wisdom for trolls says: ‘Do not feed them!’ This remedy rests on a belief that acknowledgement and…

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FCJ-163 Olympic Trolls: Mainstream Memes and Digital Discord?

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Tama Leaver Curtin University [Abstract] Introduction During 2012, the Australian and international press frequently deployed the accusation of ‘trolling’ as part of a wider moral panic about supposedly anonymous online abuse facilitated by social media. The term trolling has been applied to a range of activities, many of which are simultaneously labelled abuse, (cyber)bullying and…

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FCJ-159 /b/lack up: What Trolls Can Teach Us About Race

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Tanner Higgin Independent Scholar [Abstract] I hate racists (even if I sometimes play one on the internet). Paulie Socash (Phillips, 2012) Closing Pools, Posing Questions I’d been a fringe observer of 4chan and /b/ for years, aware but ignorant of its pleasures and horrors. Then in a particularly aimless night of YouTube browsing, I watched…

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FCJ-166 ‘Change name to No One. Like people’s status’ Facebook Trolling and Managing Online Personas

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Tero Karppi University of Turku, Finland [Abstract] Whitney Phillips (2012: 3) has recently argued that in order to understand trolls and trolling we should focus on ‘what trolls do’ and how the behaviour of trolls ‘fit[s] in and emerge[s] alongside dominant ideologies.’ [1] For Phillips dominant ideologies are connected to the ‘corporate media logic.’ Her…

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FCJ-162 Symbolic violence in the online field: Calls for ‘civility’ in online discussion

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Shannon Sindorf University of Colorado, Boulder [Abstract] Introduction In light of early high hopes for the democratic potential of online discussion, the reality of attacks, hostility, vitriol, and at times racist and sexist sentiments can be alarming (Coffey and Woolworth, 2004; Carlin, Schill, Levasseur, and King, 2005; Hlavach and Frievogel, 2011; Richardson and Stanyer, 2011;…

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FCJ-154 Trolls, Peers and the Diagram of Collaboration

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Nathaniel Tkacz University of Warwick [Abstract] I begin with two images. The first image is actually a diagram. [1] Call it the new diagram of work; specifically, of working together online. It is the diagram of collaboration. The diagram of collaboration is abstracted from any particular setting or function. There is no representation of time,…

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FCJ-154 Trolls, Peers and the Diagram of Collaboration

By ⋅ December 30, 2013 ⋅ Post a comment

Nathaniel Tkacz University of Warwick [Abstract] I begin with two images. The first image is actually a diagram. [1] Call it the new diagram of work; specifically, of working together online. It is the diagram of collaboration. The diagram of collaboration is abstracted from any particular setting or function. There is no representation of time,…

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FCJ-164 ‘Don’t be Rude on the Road’: Cycle Blogging, Trolling and Lifestyle

By ⋅ December 30, 2013 ⋅ Post a comment

Steve Jones Nottingham Trent University [Abstract] Introduction In her introduction to Cyclebabble: bloggers on biking (2011: ix), the British journalist Zoe Williams argues that, whatever cyclists’ differences, ‘We revel in our differences: Lycra mankini or tweed trousers tucked into your sock? Traffic lights – a suggestion or an order? Racer or hybrid, helmet or commando,…

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FCJ-167 Spraying, fishing, looking for trouble: The Chinese Internet and a critical perspective on the concept of trolling

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Gabriele de Seta Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. [Abstract] ‘There is always need for a certain degree of civilisation before it is possible to understand this kind of humor" Wang Xiaobo, Civilisation and Satire’ Introduction: Why trolls, why China? As an interdisciplinary field, Internet research is in the challenging position…

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FCJ-161 Productive Provocations: Vitriolic Media, Spaces of Protest and Agonistic Outrage in the 2011 England Riots

By ⋅ December 30, 2013 ⋅ Post a comment

Anthony McCosker Swinburne University, Faculty of Life and Social Sciences Amelia Johns Deakin University, Centre for Citizenship and Globalisation [Abstract] To act, then, is neither arriving at a scene nor fleeing from it, but actually engaging in its creation. (Isin, 2008: 27) Introduction The intense social upheaval that spread through a number of UK cities…

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