This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things: The Origins, Evolution and Cultural Embeddedness of Online Trolling

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dc.contributor.advisorStabile, Carolen_US
dc.contributor.authorPhillips, Whitneyen_US
dc.creatorPhillips, Whitneyen_US
dc.date.accessioned2012-12-07T23:12:32Z
dc.date.available2014-12-29T21:12:31Z
dc.date.issued2012
dc.description.abstractEthnographic in approach, this dissertation examines trolling, an online subculture devoted to meme creation and social disruption. Rather than framing trolling behaviors as fundamentally aberrant, I argue that trolls are agents of cultural digestion; they scour the landscape, repurpose the most exploitable material, then shove the resulting monstrosities into the faces of an unsuspecting populace. Within the political and social context of the United States, the region to which I have restricted my focus, I argue that trolls on 4chan/b/ and Facebook perform a grotesque pantomime of a number of pervasive cultural logics, including masculine domination and white privilege. Additionally, I argue that the rhetorical and behavioral tactics used by trolls, including sensationalism, spectacle, and emotional exploitation, are homologous to tactics routinely deployed by American corporate media outlets. In short, trolling operates within existing systems, not in contrast to them, immediately complicating knee-jerk condemnations of trolling behaviors.en_US
dc.description.embargo10000-01-01
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1794/12528
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of Oregonen_US
dc.rightsCreative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0-USen_US
dc.subjectAnonymousen_US
dc.subjectInternet cultureen_US
dc.subjectOnline anonymityen_US
dc.subjectTransgressive humoren_US
dc.subjectTrolling subcultureen_US
dc.subjectTrollsen_US
dc.titleThis Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things: The Origins, Evolution and Cultural Embeddedness of Online Trollingen_US
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertationen_US

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