Alice Marwick’s recently-published morally motivated networked harassment model is getting a workout: this week, Alice published a piece in NBC News on Chrissy Teigen’s past bullying online, the harassment she’s currently receiving, and why the cycle is hard to stop. She writes:
“Everyone has a strong sense of morality and, in our normal offline lives, it’s relatively rare to witness immoral actions. Even minor immoral acts provoke strong responses in real life: Consider how people react to small offenses like cutting in line at the drugstore. Online, however, there are many more opportunities to get angry and participate in a vicious mob to express our outrage against immoral acts we otherwise wouldn't see.
Sometimes such harassment can be powerful — a way for the powerless to speak truth to power, especially for people who are cut off from more traditional forms of redress. But there are far more situations like Costello's, who was vilified for a fabricated screenshot, or Stodden's, who fell afoul of sexist norms and faced ongoing, hateful pushback from strangers that was impossible to ignore.”
In his Galaxy Brain newsletter, Charlie Warzel used the concept to discuss “What Newsrooms Still Don’t Understand About the Internet,” linking it to recent incidents in which journalists have been targeted by networked harassment campaigns.
“Though Marwick’s paper is not about harassment of reporters, much of the harassment leveled at journalists is conducted via morally-motivated networked harassment. Just as important: the frequent, complex, and extremely varied kinds of harassment that Marwick describes is essentially the environment that newsrooms ask their reporters to go out into each day.
Not only are reporters participating in these online ecosystems when they’re promoting their stories or looking for stories but they are also frequently covering the culture war arguments that take place on the platforms. By writing about or commenting on the online culture wars, reporters, wittingly or not, become a part of those culture wars.”
Only when newsrooms successfully recognize morally motivated networked harassment campaigns can begin to provide appropriate support to their staffs and navigate these incidents effectively.
Finally, though the paper came out too late to be included in the taping, it’s mentioned in the show notes for the “Cancel Culture” episode of You’re Wrong About, which you should absolutely listen to.
Recent publications and appearances
Our colleagues at Duke Matt Perault and J. Scott Babwah Brennen shared a new proposal about how HR 1 might provide a path to Section 230 reform in WIRED:
Congratulations to two CITAP graduate affiliates:
Madhavi Reddi, recipient of the Barrow fellowship from AEJMC
Laura March, recipient of a Digital Dissertation Fellowship from Carolina Digital Humanities
Nikole Hannah-Jones
“No one is going to say in public they don’t believe in racial equality and they think police brutality is OK. Those aren’t acceptable things to say. What you see in these campaigns is that these critiques are reframed in ways that are more socially acceptable.” Alice Marwick spoke to the Chronicle of Higher Education about the Nikole Hannah-Jones tenure case. (The piece also references Alice and Daniel Kriess’s recent column for Slate.)
Faculty departures announced this week include Malinda Maynor Lowery, Sibby Anderson-Thompkins, and Kia Caldwell. “I think that there are too many times when faculty of color, specifically Black faculty are slighted they are perceived as lesser than – we should just be grateful to have an appointment,” Anderson-Thompkins told Chapelboro. “I think it’s important that our chancellor or our leaders go to bat for her and not just decide to bring it up for a vote, but to make a compelling case for why you would tenure her.”
Coming soon
Tomorrow (Juneteenth!): Tressie McMillan Cottom will be speaking alongside Jasmine Griffin during the Schomburg Center Literary Festival and literary competition. Registration is free and open to the general public.
July 1: CITAP affiliate Laura March will speak on a panel at the Discovering Collections Discovering Communities conference on “Dank memes with exclusionary themes: Cultural institutions, social media, and perpetuating cultural hegemony online”
Rest of Web
Congratulations to our friends at the UNC Hussman School of Journalism for their 2021 championship win in the Hearst Journalism Awards!
Daniel Kreiss shared an essay from the New Yorker about conservative panic over Critical Race Theory: