Representations of 'trolls' in mass media communication: a review of media-texts and moral panics relating to 'internet trolling'
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paper_title: Increasing participation in online communities: A framework for human-computer interaction

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Online communities are becoming an accepted part of the lives of Internet users, although participation in these communities is dependent on the types of people that form them. Some of the online community's members do not participate, people referred to as lurkers, whereas others who have been in the community for a long time, referred to as elders, participate regularly and support others. Understanding what drives these individuals and how they chose whether or not to participate will lead to online communities that thrive. This paper proposes a conceptual framework to describe what drives such individuals to carry out actions such as posting messages and adding content (level 1), the cognitions they use to determine whether or not to take such actions (level 2) and the means by which they go about carrying out the action in the environment (level 3). Finally, the framework is applied to the problem of encouraging members to participate by discussing the methods by which people can be persuaded to participate by changing the way they interpret their desires and their environment.
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paper_title: Lurker demographics: counting the silent

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As online groups grow in number and type, understanding lurking is becoming increasingly important. Recent reports indicate that lurkers make up over 90% of online groups, yet little is known about them. This paper presents a demographic study of lurking in email-based discussion lists (DLs) with an emphasis on health and software-support DLs. Four primary questions are examined. One, how prevalent is lurking, and do health and software-support DLs differ? Two, how do lurking levels vary as the definition is broadened from zero posts in 12 weeks to 3 or fewer posts in 12 weeks? Three, is there a relationship between lurking and the size of the DL, and four, is there a relationship between lurking and traffic level? When lurking is defined as no posts, the mean lurking level for all DLs is lower than the reported 90%. Health-support DLs have on average significantly fewer lurkers (46%) than software-support DLs (82%). Lurking varies widely ranging from 0 to 99%. The relationships between lurking, group size and traffic are also examined.
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paper_title: Language and the internet

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Preface 1. A linguistic perspective 2. The medium of Netspeak 3. Finding an identity 4. The language of e-mail 5. The language of chatgroups 6. The language of virtual worlds 7. The language of the Web 8. The future of the Internet Index.
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paper_title: Picturing Usenet: Mapping Computer-Mediated Collective Action

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Usenet is a complex socio-technical phenomenon, containing vast quantities of information. The sheer scope and complexity make it a challenge to understand the many dimensions across which people and communication are interlinked. In this work, we present visualizations of several aspects and scales of Usenet that combine to highlight the range of variation found in newsgroups. We examine variations within hierarchies, newsgroups, authors, and social networks. We find a remarkable diversity, with clear variations that mark starting points for mapping the broad sweep of behavior found in this and other social cyberspaces. Our findings provide the basis for initial recommendations for those cultivating, managing, contributing, or consuming collectively constructed conversational content.
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paper_title: LOLing at tragedy: Facebook trolls, memorial pages and resistance to grief online

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This paper examines the emergence of organized trolling behaviors on Facebook, specifically in relation to memorial groups and fan pages. In addition to mapping the development of RIP trolling — in which online instigators post abusive comments and images onto pages created for and dedicated to the deceased — the paper also examines the highly contentious and ultimately parasitic relationship(s) between memorial trolls, Facebook’s social networking platform and mainstream media outlets. Recalling Oring’s account of disaster humor, the paper goes on to suggest that, inadvertently or not, Facebook memorial page trolling presents a pointed critique of a tragedy–obsessed global media.
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paper_title: From environmental to sustainability communication: Lessons learnt from the German craft sector

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In Germany, environmental communication is a topic for the chambers of crafts and its members for more than 20 years. During the 1990s, the Federal Association of Chambers of Crafts (ZDH) builds up ten environmental centers all over Germany for improving environmental knowledge of SMEs. Furthermore, 89 special programmes and 280 projects for the crafts were supported by several donor organisations like the German Environmental Foundation (DBU) until December 2004. This paper presents some results of our cross-sectoral evaluation study which had been finished last year. The focus is set on the development from environmental to sustainability communication within the craft sector, showing both chances and risks accompanied by this change. Moreover, our findings on the quality of communication management and our conclusions for steering communication processes with SMEs will be discussed. The guiding question is: what are the lessons learnt from environmental communication in the German craft sector and how can the acceptance and support for sustainability issues of SMEs be improved? Biographical Information Dr. Wolfgang Meyer, 1959, Sociologist, Senior Scientist and ProjectCoordinator of the Working Area “Labour Market and Environmental Evaluation” at the Center for Evaluation at Saarland University, Chair of Working Group “Evaluation of Environmental Policy” of the German Evaluation Society (DeGEval). Research Topics: Environmental Sociology, Evaluation Methods, Labour Market Research.
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paper_title: Impacts of Net-generation attributes, seductive properties of the Internet, and gratifications-obtained on Internet use

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The Net-generation is a new generation who was born between 1977 and 1997. But unlike their parents, they are not defined by demographics alone, but rather by a combination of their demographic cohort, values, life experiences, and behavior. Based on the assumption that the Net-geners will exhibit differences from the boomers, the purpose of this study is to (1) identify attributes that can distinctly characterize the Net-generation and (2) examine how these attributes, together with perceived seductive properties of the Internet (e.g., pleasure of control and fluidity of identity) and gratifications-obtained from Internet use can predict Net-geners' popular Internet activities. Using a probability sample, a telephone survey was conducted with 976 respondents in the age of 16-24. Exploratory factor analysis found that Net-geners are (1) strongly principled and believe in fundamental rights to information, (2) emotionally open on the Net, (3) innovative and investigative, and (4) independent, confident, and preoccupied with maturity. Results of hierarchical regression analysis show that Net-geners are emotionally open individuals who use the Internet primarily as a social technology. Heavy users of the Internet were motivated by the ability through the Internet to show affections, to establish social bonds, and to escape. Most important, heavy users of the Internet often enjoyed the illusory power of being able to control the world inside the computer when playing online games and attracted by the ability of the Internet to offer companionship in the virtual world. Furthermore, Net-geners were fascinated by the capacity of the Internet to allow them to present a different persona when interacting online such as chatting on ICQ. This "fluidity of identity" gives Net-geners a feeling of status and modernity, which may bolster their self-esteem.
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paper_title: Increasing Capital Revenue in Social Networking Communities: Building Social and Economic Relationships through Avatars and Characters

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The rise of online communities in Internet environments has set in motion an unprecedented shift in power from vendors of goods and services to the customers who buy them, with those vendors who understand this transfer of power and choose to capitalize on it by organizing online communities and being richly rewarded with both peerless customer loyalty and impressive economic returns. A type of online community, the virtual world, could radically alter the way people work, learn, grow consume, and entertain. Understanding the exchange of social and economic capital in online communities could involve looking at what causes actors to spend their resources on improving someone else’s reputation. Actors’ reputations may affect others’ willingness to trade with them or give them gifts. Investigating online communities reveals a large number of different characters and associated avatars. When an actor looks at another’s avatar they will evaluate them and make decisions that are crucial to creating interaction between customers and vendors in virtual worlds based on the exchange of goods and services. This chapter utilizes the ecological cognition framework to understand transactions, characters and avatars in virtual worlds and investigates the exchange of capital in a bulletin board and virtual. The chapter finds strong evidence for the existence of characters and stereotypes based on the ecologi cal cognition framework and empirical evidence that actors using avatars with antisocial connotations are more likely to have a lower return on investment and be rated less positively than those with more sophisticated appearing avatars.
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paper_title: Conflict and identity shape shifting in an online financial community

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This paper challenges traditional explorations of online communities that have relied upon assumptions of trust and social cohesion. In the analysis presented here, conflict becomes more than just dysfunctional communication and ::: provides an alternative set of unifying principles and rationales for understanding social interaction and identity shape shifting within an online community. A model ::: is advanced that describes the systematic techniques of hostility and aggression in technologically enabled communities that take the form of contemporary tribalism. ::: It is argued that this tribe-like conflict embodies important rituals essential for maintaining and defining the contradictory social roles sometimes found in online ::: environments. This research offers a critical interpretive perspective that focuses on the link between identity shape shifting behaviours and the power relations within an online financial community. The analysis reveals how conflict between positions of power can help to align the values and ideals of an online community. With this study we seek to motivate a re-examination of the design and governance of online communities.
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paper_title: Treating Internet Users as 'Audiences': Suggesting some Research Directions

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Within the last decade the Internet 'has emerged out of nowhere' (Ba" 2000, back cover) to monopolise much of the domestic time, intellectual interest, and financial resources that had previously been lavished upon film, television, and (specialist console) game consumption, So far, research on the Internet appears to be following a similar evolutionary pattern to research on broadcast media-displacement studies (what have people 'given up' to make time for the Internet?), effects studies (is it addictive, bad, bankrupting, and whyn ratings data, and response to moral panics (Internet gambling and pornography). Arguably, applied research involving Internet partidpants treats users as 'audience/s', Is this a legitimate perspective, however, when members are often content creators as well as consumers? The concept of the active audience recognises that all consumption is also produc. tion but the production of meaning for the individual television audience member differs sign;f. icantly from that which occurs when people engage in interactive exchanges on the Internet, creating content for themselves and others. This paper addresses these issues, suggesting pass;· ble research trajectories. Lelia Green, School of Communications and Multimedia, fdith Cowan University, Perth, Westem Australia. INTRODUCTION This paper interrogates the notion of the Internet audience and its characteristics by examining the relevance of the domestic context, and the relationship of consumption to Internet activity. One focus of the enquiry is the notion of an Internet 'audience', given that much interaction via the Internet concentrates upon content production, as well as upon the production of meaning through the consumption of content created by other people. This dynamiC creates a significant difference between the consumption of traditional broadcast mass media and the activ~ Tr,'satilnft Internet users as 'audiences'
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paper_title: Watching What We Think: The Dismantling of the Mainstream Media Monopoly

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Seeking to explain the relative rise of perceived "conservative news" and the deterioration of the perceived "liberal media," we presume that ours is a simple economic case of what happens when monopolistic power is lost. Polarization is exuberated, though there is increased democratic participation on the positive side.
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paper_title: Scandalous Co-determination

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We compare the academic evaluation of supervisory board co-determination in Germany with its portrayal in the mass media. According to empirical research, co-determination does not have a detrimental effect on firm performance and can thus be regarded as simply an element of corporate governance within Germany. However, a content analysis capturing characterisations of co-determination in German newspapers between 1998 and 2007 shows that this institution is depicted more and more critically in the press. There is thus a noticeable discrepancy between empirical evidence and the interpretative schemata of mass media. In this paper, we investigate the reasons for this divergence as well as its consequences.
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paper_title: Document reconstruction by layout analysis of snippets

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Document analysis is done to analyze entire forms (e.g. intelligent form analysis, table detection) or to describe ::: the layout/structure of a document. Also skew detection of scanned documents is performed to support OCR ::: algorithms that are sensitive to skew. In this paper document analysis is applied to snippets of torn documents to ::: calculate features for the reconstruction. Documents can either be destroyed by the intention to make the printed ::: content unavailable (e.g. tax fraud investigation, business crime) or due to time induced degeneration of ancient ::: documents (e.g. bad storage conditions). Current reconstruction methods for manually torn documents deal ::: with the shape, inpainting and texture synthesis techniques. In this paper the possibility of document analysis ::: techniques of snippets to support the matching algorithm by considering additional features are shown. This ::: implies a rotational analysis, a color analysis and a line detection. As a future work it is planned to extend the ::: feature set with the paper type (blank, checked, lined), the type of the writing (handwritten vs. machine printed) ::: and the text layout of a snippet (text size, line spacing). Preliminary results show that these pre-processing steps ::: can be performed reliably on a real dataset consisting of 690 snippets.
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paper_title: After the moral panic? Reframing the debate about child safety online

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This paper examines the initial ‘moral panic’ surrounding children's access to the Internet at the end of the last century by analysing more than 900 media articles and key government documents from 1997 to 2001. It explores the ambiguous settlements that this produced in adult–child relations and children's access to the Internet. The paper then revisits the policy and media debate a decade later by examining the Byron Review, Digital Britain Report and media coverage of these, in order to explore how these settlements have been negotiated, resisted and transformed over the subsequent period. In so doing, the paper asks whether it is time to reframe the debate about children's occupation of online public space, less in terms of ‘care’ for children's needs that tends to result in exclusionary and surveillance strategies, and more in terms of children's rights and capacities to engage in democratic debates about the nature of an online public space in which they are already participating.
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paper_title: Urban youth cultures and the re-building of social capital: illustrations from a pilot study in Glasgow

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The demonization of youth in urban communities is on the increase globally, and the recent media obsession with youth gang culture has added to this moral panic. This paper examines evidence from a small qualitative pilot study of young people in some of the most deprived urban communities in Glasgow, Scotland. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with disaffected young people between the ages of 14-19 years as a means of exploring their experience of urban phenomena and the impact this experience has on the generation of social capital. The findings illustrate that the young people feel stigmatised, victimised and excluded from urban space, and that territorial issues restrict their social mobility. Although gang membership provides some young people with a source of bonding social capital, the reality of their lives is one devoid of trust, reciprocity and agency. The paper presents evidence from a case study of a new community-based youth work initiative in Glasgow and the impact it has on re-building social capital among young marginalised men. The paper ends with implications for practice and suggestions for future research.
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Title: Representations of 'trolls' in mass media communication: a review of media-texts and moral panics relating to 'internet trolling'

Section 1: Introduction
Description 1: Write about the rapid spread of internet trolling jargon, moral panic triggers in various countries, and current context. Discuss the purpose of the study in terms of analyzing the media coverage of internet trolling.

Section 2: The difference of internet trolling
Description 2: Discuss the different meanings of 'trolling' using Derrida's concepts of 'différence' and 'différance'. Provide historical context of the term 'troll' and its origins, including references to military uses and folklore.

Section 3: Classical trolling and Anonymous trolling
Description 3: Explain the distinctions between classical trolling (mutual enjoyment) and Anonymous trolling (harmful intent). Provide historical examples and how these terms help in understanding the evolution of trolling.

Section 4: Kudos trolling and flame trolling
Description 4: Define and differentiate between flame trolling (abusive and harmful) and kudos trolling (entertaining and humorous). Include modern adaptations and campaigns targeting these behaviors.

Section 5: Stereotyping internet trolling
Description 5: Analyze how mass media organizations use stereotypes to depict internet trolling and trolls to increase their audience engagement and create moral panics.

Section 6: Character theories of internet trolling
Description 6: Examine different character theories, including Propp's framework and various models for understanding online community characters. Discuss different types of trolls and their behaviors.

Section 7: Audience theory and internet trolling
Description 7: Discuss how audience theory drives media presentation of internet trolling. Explore different audience segments and how they consume depictions of trolls and trolling.

Section 8: A review of mass media representations of internet trolling and trolls
Description 8: Review various depictions of internet trolling across different types of mass media, such as newspapers, websites, and television. Discuss the impact of these representations on public perception.

Section 9: Methodology
Description 9: Detail the methodological approach of document analysis used in the study, including the types of mass media texts analyzed.

Section 10: Documents
Description 10: Describe the types of documents analyzed in the study, with references to specific tables summarizing media-texts. Discuss the narratives around internet safety, moral panics, and trolling.

Section 11: Newspapers
Description 11: Discuss how newspapers present information on trolling, providing examples of influential cases and differing portrayals.

Section 12: Websites
Description 12: Compare and contrast the presentation of trolling on websites versus print newspapers. Discuss the influence of design and layout on reader perception.

Section 13: Television
Description 13: Analyze how television programs depict trolls and trolling, including specific programs and their impact on viewers.

Section 14: Results
Description 14: Present the findings from the document analysis, highlighting differences in media presentations of trollers and their implications.

Section 15: Towards a common framework for classifying internet trolling
Description 15: Propose a comprehensive framework for understanding and classifying different types of internet trolling based on the study’s findings.

Section 16: Discussion
Description 16: Discuss how the term 'troll' has evolved and the media's role in driving moral panic. Analyze differences in presentation across media types and what they suggest about audience gratifications.

Section 17: Limitations and directions for future research
Description 17: Acknowledge the limitations of the study and propose areas for future research, including a deeper investigation into character types, youth targeting, and the role of misogyny in trolling incidents.