Annotated bibliography (in progress)
Below is a list of the first handful of sources I will be using for this project. These for sure will not wind up being the only sources I use, but they are a solid foundation for the type of research and investigation I will be conducting over the next few weeks.
Bratu, Sofia. “The Inexorable Shift Towards An Increasingly Hostile Cyberspace Environment: The Adverse Social Impact Of Online Trolling Behavior.” Contemporary Readings in Law and Social Justice, vol. 9, no. 2, Aug. 2017, pp. 88–94., doi:10.22381/crlsj9220176.
Bratu takes a comprehensive, detailed analysis of on the moral consequences of online trolling behavior. Within this framework, Bratu looks at the locations that trolling takes place and how digital space acts as a spark for trolling to occur. Importantly, Bratu also looks at the people who perpetrate trolling in online spaces. She looks at the personality traits, types of discourse they engage in, and societal benefits trolls reap when they perpetuate these acts. Each section of this text includes a thorough analysis of phenomena that the author has witnessed and researched. She expertly connects how acts of trolling are reflections of mainstream culture. This source will be a good contribution to this research, as it will offer crucial insight into the kinds of people and personalities who perpetuate trolling. This will provide necessary framing to the project.
Lumsden, Karen, and Heather Morgan. “Media framing of trolling and online abuse: silencing strategies, symbolic violence, and victim blaming.” Feminist Media Studies, vol. 17, no. 6, 27 Dec. 2017, pp. 926–940., doi:10.1080/14680777.2017.1316755.
Lumsden and Morgan conduct a thorough analysis of British newspapers and how they choose to report on digital trolling and online harassment. They conclude that silencing strategies, the perpetuation of rape culture, and stereotypical gender portrayal of victims is rampant in how the British “old media” report on trolling. They also include an insightful review of the existing literature on trolling and online gendered abuse. This article is fairly comprehensive in its research and reach. The authors also include an analysis of Bourdieu’s analysis of the media and its symbolic power. The authors use this ‘symbolic power’ as a framework for their own research. Overall this article will be relevant to this project’s scope when looking at the effects of online gender trolling and how others respond to this phenomenon.
Choja, Oduaran, and Okorie Nelson. “Psychological Violence and the bane of Cyber-Harassment against Women- An Experiential Inquest on Facebook.” Gender & Behaviour, vol. 14, no. 3, Dec. 2016, pp. 7589–7608., proxyau.wrlc.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxyau.wrlc.org/docview/1876811600?accountid=8285.
Oduaran and Nelson conduct a study to examine: how aware people are of cyber harassment on Facebook, how cyber harassment looks on Facebook, and the psychological consequences of being harassed over Facebook. This study used data obtained from surveys to reach its conclusions that found that the more one uses Facebook, the more likely one is to see and be the victim of harassment. The study also found that there are extreme psychological effects not only to being the victim of harassment but also to witness it. This study will be of benefit to this project in that it provides a thorough analysis of the prevalence of cyber harassment and how many people witness it.
Thériault, Annie. “Female Online Harassment Is Terrorism. Period.” Voice Male, vol. 19, no. 66, 2015, pp. 20–21., proxyau.wrlc.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxyau.wrlc.org/docview/1696684620?accountid=8285.
This brief article examined the need to label this phenomenon of repeated online harassment as terrorism. By doing such, Thériault argues that this will allow the media and law enforcement to take it more seriously and less flippantly than what is currently being done. She uses an interview with a scholar to corroborate her argument. Additionally, Thériault compares online gender harassment to other human-rights based movements that work towards the betterment of women, such as political representation and street harassment. This source will be beneficial to this project as it offers a solution to how society thinks about and frames this issue of gender harassment.
Mantilla, Karla. “Gendertrolling Misogyny Adapts to New Media.” Feminist studies, vol. 39, no. 2, 2013, pp. 563–570., proxyau.wrlc.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxyau.wrlc.org/docview/1667353433?accountid=8285.
This brief article articulates the definition of gendertrolling as a specific phenomenon that differs from trolling in a deeply gendered way by looking at: who participates, who perpetuates, the gender-based insults used, the extremely vicious language used, the use of threats, the intensity, scope, longevity, of this phenomenon, and response to women speaking out. The author uses contemporary examples of gendertrolling to articulate that this phenomenon is used to keep women out of public digital spaces much like street harassment is used to keep women out of public non-digital spaces. This article will be useful to the project as it thoroughly breaks down how gendertrolling operates and how it has affected different communities of women.
Mcglynn, Clare, et al. “Beyond ‘Revenge Porn’: The Continuum of Image-Based Sexual Abuse.” Feminist Legal Studies, vol. 25, no. 1, 2017, pp. 25–46., doi:10.1007/s10691-017-9343-2.
This article discusses the need for understanding image-based sexual violence on a scale not dissimilar to how other forms of violence against women are understood. Mcglynn argues that like other forms of violence, types of image-based sexual violence cannot be seen as a hierarchy, but as a spectrum. She defines and outlines revenge porn, voyeurism, upskirting, hacking, photoshopping, sextortion, and publishing videos of sexual assault and rape as forms of violence against women and how they intersect with digital culture. While the scope of this project is not to focus solely on image-based violence, this is a sub-topic that will be touched on.