This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things by Whitney Phillips

This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things by Whitney Phillips

Why the troll problem is actually a culture problem: how online trolling fits comfortably within today's media landscape.Internet trolls live to upset as many people as possible, using all the technical and psychological tools at their disposal. They gleefully whip the media into a frenzy over a fake teen drug crisis; they post offensive messages on Facebook memorial pages, traumatizing grief-stricken friends and family; they use unabashedly racist language and images. They take pleasure in ruining a complete stranger's day and find amusement in their victim's anguish. In short, trolling is the obstacle to a kinder, gentler Internet. To quote a famous Internet meme, trolling is why we can't have nice things online. Or at least that's what we have been led to believe. In this provocative book, Whitney Phillips argues that trolling, widely condemned as obscene and deviant, actually fits comfortably within the contemporary media landscape. Trolling may be obscene, but, Phillips argues, it isn't all that deviant. Trolls' actions are born of and fueled by culturally sanctioned impulses--which are just as damaging as the trolls' most disruptive behaviors. Phillips describes, for example, the relationship between trolling and sensationalist corporate media--pointing out that for trolls, exploitation is a leisure activity; for media, it's a business strategy. She shows how trolls, the grimacing poster children for a socially networked world, align with social media. And she documents how trolls, in addition to parroting media tropes, also offer a grotesque pantomime of dominant cultural tropes, including gendered notions of dominance and success and an ideology of entitlement. We don't just have a trolling problem, Phillips argues; we have a culture problem. This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things isn't only about trolls; it's about a culture in which trolls thrive.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780262529877
ISBN 10	0262529874
Title	This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things
Author	Whitney Phillips
Series	The Mit Press
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	MIT Press Ltd
Year published	2016-09-02
Number of pages	256
Prizes	Winner of Winner of the 2016 Nancy Baym Book Award, sponsored by the Association of Internet Researchers. 2016
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.