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Blog #6

In chapter two of the article This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Thingsby Whitney Mitchell, “Lulz” is explained in its relationship to trolling. Starting out as a corruption of “LOL” or laugh out loud, the term celebrates the anguish of a laughed at victim. Basically amusement from the distress of another, the term can be used in a variety of ways as a punishment or reward. Lulz can be categorized by three things: Fetishism, generativity, and magnetism. 

Fetish not in a sexual or religious sense, but in a Marxist sense of commodity fetishism. The Lulz trolls obscure the social conditions and interpersonal strife that animate a particular story, only focusing on the absurd, exploitable details that can be Lulz’d. An example being the death of teenager named Mitchell Henderson who killed himself. The condolence letters sent to his parents were taken and Lulz for misspellings, and the fact he previously lost his iPod has trolls laughing at him for taking his life for that reason. The story eventually got placed on 4chan’s /b/ page where the Lulz trolling only exploded at the expense to the boy’s family grief. 

Lulz are also generative in the sense that a response can add the trolling as Lulz feed on the response of the attacked. Say someone posts something on the internet that attracts the attention of a troll. Said troll will share with fellow trolls who only explode the Lulz, in most cases to the person being trolled. When the person at the center of the Lulz replies with Grief or anger, this only provides more content to be Lulz by trolls. 

The last characteristic of Magnetism is essentially summed up by the attention that can be attracted from a Lulz’d object. An example from the article is the 1990’s video game Battletoads, which somehow found its way on 4chan’s /v/ page for video games under the quote “Is this Battletoads?”. Trolls began to call GameStop stores asking to preorder a sequel that didn’t exist, which would infuriate the workers. This rage led to trolls posting the store numbers of those workers who had the best reactions on 4chan, which led to more and more phone calls, leading to ever greater rage, and in turn Lulz. This magnetism literally attracted the attention of more trolls looking to get a Lulz based on the Lulz of people they may or may have not known on 4chan. Once a particular piece of content enters trolling lexicon, its comedic exchange only increases in value to the trolling community. Those who are not aware of the original content can still experience amusement from the collective historic Lulz of the term, allowing it to live on. This history leads to the mass of memes and Lulz content that we see spill into mainstream media.

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Blog 5

The article This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things by Whitney Phillips in the chapter “Defining Terms” discusses a variety of things from the history of trolling, the not quite trolling, subculture vs main-culture. The original origins of the term are mostly seen to be derived from troll fishing or Norse Mythology, with the first official online record coming about in 1992. Early trolling sought to entice a reaction from other online users through means of leaving “bait” for others to react to. Internet scholar Lincoln Dahlberg argued that the most serious problem associated with trolling in the early 2000’s was impersonation. Not just concerned with identity theft, but with the impersonating a living of fictional person, in turn undermining the integrity of the online community. This sort of trolling played out time and time again in online dating when it first emerged, in the form of “Catfishing” where someone impersonates someone they are not to form online relationships with someone unaware of the impersonation.

Subcultures of trolling did not hit main stream popularity until the creation of 4chan in 2003 as a spillover site for a NSFW “Anime Death Tentacle Rape Whorehouse” where users began to create their own lexicon and behavioral norms. Self-identification as a troll was one of these norms. These 4chan trolls mainly posted on the /b/ board, which became well known inside and outside the realm of trolls. AOL was another popular place for trolls to play in the 1990’s as one troll claimed to go online and crash the fan chatrooms of the Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync using punters like Phrostbyte that would flood the chat with garbage-text. Another form of proto-trolling were the various shock images that would be considered memes today such as Goatse, Tubgirl, and Lemon Party. These images were posted to provide views with images that cannot be unseen in their minds. The difference between these proto-trolls and modern trolls is that these early trolls did not consistently flag themselves as such.

No troll conversation is complete without the inclusion of memes. 4chan played a role in creating or at least amplifying nearly every popular internet meme from 2003 to 2011. Prominent examples include LOLcats (images of cats with random texts attached), Rickrolling ( people unwittingly being redirected to a clip of Rick Astley’s 1987 song Never Gonna Give You Up), and rage face comics. Most early memes were made by subculture trolls for other subculture trolls, where most memes were connected in way that only through a string do they make sense. These memes were frequently posted on social media sites such as Facebook with the mainstream user was unaware of what they were viewing.

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Blog 4

The article Digital Citizenship by Karen Mossberger, Caroline J. Tolbert, and Ramona S. Mcneal created much to discuss in class as it such a broad topic. When discussing what qualifies someone as a digital citizen, some believe that there are a greater number of requirements to be considered while others viewed internet use as the sole requirement. No matter how we thought citizenship was gained, everyone seemed to share the same idea that we all have a duty as an online citizen to the health of the community. By participating in the digital world, posting or absorbing information, you were adding value to a medium that would not otherwise have that data. A good example of participation were chatrooms. A decade ago, chatrooms were the go to communication platform for the online world as many people could connect online and have conversation. Although less popular today, there are still many active chatroom sites such as Reddit and online forums for various interests. Chatrooms today provide a place where some may feel more comfortable sharing their thoughts as opposed to an in person setting, allowing them to express ideas they would otherwise hold in. From previous discussions, we know that trolls live on sites such as these for their ability to draw a reaction from others on the site. Trolling is an example of a non-productive digital citizen, someone who doesn’t add value to the platform. The web is also a great way to mobilize digital citizens, such as campaigns, fundraising and international causes. President Obama was one of the first major political individuals to really use the internet as a way to connect to voters. He ran a massive online campaign, full of emails, advertisements, and his own website with information for people to view. Today, this is a common tactic among political campaigns. Actually, it may be one of the most essential parts of a successful campaign in today’s digital age as it doesn’t require a large amount of money, allowing lesser known or less funded candidates to compete against those with large war chests. Though not everyone has access to the internet as we learned in class, in the video about technology in Americas schools. This puts some young Americans at a disadvantage before they even qualify to be considered an adult. It may be improving, though as the wealthiest country in the world, we should be doing better and committing to invest in our youth as past generations invested in us.

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Blog #3

Astra Taylor’s article, The Peoples Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age, highlights the confusion between what is open and what is closed in today’s technoogy filled society. She starts out by comparing what is generally considered “open” such as the internet, the United States and Google, to the “closed” models of cable television, China and central planning. Most believe that the open platforms are the good while the closed models are bad. Then she brings up the question of what does open really mean? Is openness an end or a means? Does openness come being an open access platform or is the term derived from an ownership aspect now?  Facebook claims to be a platform for open and connected interactions around the world while they highly regulate what is posted and shared or is capable through their site. Highly contradictory, though a model used by most social media platforms that has allowed social media companies to become some of the most widely used applications around the world. You could also view the term in an open standard view, where the term fosters innovation and invention. Taylor uses another example of a big time corporate boss who owns a goldmine where none of his geologist can located the gold deposits. He turns to the open internet to create a contest, offering a cash reward to anyone who can help him locate the gold on his property from the data and information he provided. Being an open network, he received thousands of replies, which ultimately helped him discover $3.4 billion worth of gold, for a mere $500,000. This highlighted the benefits of openness for profit purposes but did not acknowledge of the workers in the mine, their pay, the company’s human rights or environmental violations.

           Taylor’s argument is valid in a lot of ways. The term has changed due to the coming of the internet age, where it has taken on many meanings. In order to plan the course for the future of the internet, we must understand what words such as “open” mean, definitively. Without an understanding of such basic concepts, we will never be able take back out power and culture, as the article indicates. As Taylor says on page 64, I feel technology in an unregulated and unencumbered market will allow every to compete in a truly open digital society where everyone has the power to create something new. This could lead to a culturally richer and more egalitarian society as Taylor states.

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Blog 2 - Research Outline

Before enrolling in this class, I became fascinated with the use of social media by politicians to spread their messages to their constituency. Even more prevalent during election season where campaigns are in full swing, attempting to reach as many voters as possible in the cheapest way possible. Compared to historic means of mass communication such as radio, television, and newspaper, social media is free. With no cost to open your own account and begin posting, more and more politicians have joined the wave. Without a social media presence today, many politicians have issues reaching the younger voters within their district. Social media has become a significant part of campaigning, and politics itself. I want to dive into what makes social media such an enticing platform for today’s politics, as its influence only seems to be increasing. What makes social media so enticing for young generations? Why are these generations so quick to believe what they see on social media? What are the best ways to market to these citizens as a politician?  These are just some of the questions I have going into the paper, with some answers sure to be coming from the class readings or class discussions.

If you are wanting a great example, look no further than the 45th President of the United States. Donald Trump created such a large social media presence leading up the election that his name was routinely in the trending section of most platforms. His name recognition in a world where public interest/satisfaction in politics is nearing an all-time low helped push Trump into the White House in 2016. Being a member of the millennial age group, I’ve heard too many of my fellow millennials say, “I voted for Trump because I saw him on TV”, or “I voted for Trump because of the funny stuff he posts on twitter.” Experience, education and skills were thrown out the window when choosing the President of the United States in exchange for name recognition. Of course, Trump wasn’t the first celebrity to become elected President of our country, as Ronald Reagan served as the 40th President. Regan of course previously served two terms as the Governor of California before being handed the keys to the nation, meanwhile Trump filed for bankruptcy on multiple occasions. The 2016 election and Trumps rise to office is the sort of situation I seek to find answers to, in order to understand how to prevent it the next time a narcissist runs for office.

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Blog #1

In the article written by W. Lance Bennett, journalism is put under the microscope in order to gain a firm understanding of the topic. Today, there are three ways people consume the news: digital, digital/legacy, and legacy. Digital refers to methods that involve the internet and devices to gain access to news. Legacy news comes in the form of newspapers, broadcast news, and public radio, which is more favorable for those 55 years and older. Previously, a consumer would potentially have to listen to an entire broadcast, or flip through every page in order to get to the section or story they wanted to see/hear. Today, tech companies can track which topics interest you most, lining your entire feed with topics tailored to you. This allows people to become sheltered in their own world of interests, while becoming completely sheltered from other major events going on. This is particularly useful in the political realm today, which has become more polar and divisive than ever before. This symbiotic relationship has allowed for constituents to become selectively informed about issues not relevant to their beliefs or party. The less people know, the less informed their votes will be when election cycles come. This relationship is only increased when spin is added into the mix from “unbiased” news stations such as CNN and Fox. The most powerful person on the planet, President Donald Trump, has taken notice of the power of media, as seen during his campaign. Agenda setting, indexing, and claims of fake news. This era has allowed people in power or in the spotlight to decide what is fact, and what is not.

           Being a part of the generation who mainly uses the internet and social media to access the news, I’ve grown up watching all of the shade and scandal that has lost a lot of trust in politics and media. Polarity has plagued both politics and the news in recent years, giving both a bad reputation on opposing sides of issues. As discussed in class, there are not enough hours in the day for the average person to sift through news to find what is real vs what is not, leaving many to believe what they see first. I understand that news companies are businesses first and foremost, but the public should have access to factual, unbiased information as an alternative to what is out there today. Sure, there are some companies providing this basic news, though they struggle to distribute news compared to the media giants. However, I don’t think the public should be so trusting of every headline they see in the news as they are today. Everything should be taken with a grain of salt.

           All of this pairs with the device topics of weeks past. Technology has increased access to information and capabilities not previously possible, yet the same tech has us viewing the world through binoculars, as opposed to viewing the entire picture.

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Blog #1