This article considers how the social-news and community site Reddit.com has become a hub for anti-feminist activism. Examining two recent cases of what are defined as “toxic technocultures” (#Gamergate and The Fappening), this work describes how Reddit’s design, algorithm, and platform politics implicitly support these kinds of cultures. In particular, this piece focuses on the ways in which Reddit’s karma point system, aggregation of material across subreddits, ease of subreddit and user account creation, governance structure, and policies around offensive content serve to provide fertile ground for anti-feminist and misogynistic activism. The ways in which these events and communities reflect certain problematic aspects of geek masculinity are also considered. This research is informed by the results of a long-term participant-observation and ethnographic study into Reddit’s culture and community and is grounded in actor-network theory.
This essay explores what the “alt-right” (White ethnonationalist, fascist, misogynistic, and anti-intellectual communities) means for social media researchers in terms of research ethics, risk, and visibility. First, it outlines how #Gamergate and #OperationDiggingDiGRA indicated that academic researchers could be targets of their hostility. This essay then draws on the work of Foucault and Mulvey to theorize how far-right groups have a kind of “gaze.” Then, it discusses how far-right extremism requires rethinking ethical questions around researchers and participants. Finally, some thoughts are offered as to what this means for how individuals, organizations, disciplines, and institutions can support research into these spaces.
This article considers the problematic relationship between new media designers and users in current texts written about user-centered design (UCD) techniques. To better understand and solidify the importance of the user within the technological artifact, these designers often create 'personas' -prototypical users with names, faces, interests and preferences. Personas serve as boundary objects used as conceptual stand-ins for users when team members make design decisions. This article traces the discursive construction of the 'user' within web design texts and how these texts describe the persona technique. The analysis suggests that the use of personas is motivated as much by political realities within new media organizations, as it is by the desire to address user needs. In addition, it is argued that personas serve to reinscribe the conceptual separation between the user and designer despite technological developments (like Web 2.0) that blur this boundary.
This essay considers the origin and meaning of "Social Justice Warrior" (SJW) memes.Despite each term within the phrase suggesting potentially positive connotations, we argue that as deployed within "alt-right" communities, it implies a kind of monstrous feminine: a woman who is unwieldy and out-of-control. We catalogue and analyze this meme using a visual discourse analysis of texts gathered through Google Images and Reddit. Our findings suggest that the SJW meme is deployed to emphasize opponents as having non-normative, problematic bodies, different brains (ones ruled by emotion rather than logic), and monstrous characteristics. We argue that such discourse is potentially dangerous, but that feminists may have the tools to recreate the SJW as an image of power.
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