Whitney Phillips
Biographic Data
| ID | 3790555 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Whitney Phillips |
| GIVEN NAMES | Whitney |
| FAMILY NAME | Phillips |
| SIGNATURE | PHILLIPS W |
| AFFILIATIONS | Syracuse University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3791-292X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 8 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 18 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 8 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
The Shadow Gospel
s framings of avertive apocalypticism and dark enchantment were especially influential to our thinking, and his comments on our final draft were enormously helpful.Others have also provided thoughtful feedback and sound boarding: thank you to Jordan and Anne for constant insights and support and to Michelle D. Brock for the generous exchange of ideas at such a pivotal
In a Land of Venn Diagrams
This essay is part of a forum that includes Tom Mould's article "Counter Memes and Anti-Legends in Online Welfare Discourse" (2022) and response essays published in this issue ("Vaccine Hesitancy Counter Memes" by Anastasiya Astapova and "Memes and Representations of Race: An Analysis of Historical Representations of Welfare" by Mia Moody-Ramirez)
You Are Here
"A novel analysis of social media network manipulation that shows how everyday users can limit the spread of harmful, misleading, and objectively false information"
It Wasn't Just the Trolls
When considering the extremist turn of the Trump-era internet, it is critical to interrogate the influence of subcultural trolling on and around 4chan from 2008 to 2012. The troll space isn't the only space worth interrogating, however. During this same period, there was a marked overlap between subcultural trolling and the nebulous, discursive category known colloquially as 'internet culture.' Both were swiftly absorbed into broader popular cult…
“You’re terrible, don’t ever change!”
This chapter focuses on the insight forwarded—seemingly unwittingly—by Best Worst Movie . While all fan engagement is ambivalent at this most basic structural level, certain forms of fan engagement are ambivalent at the content level as well. Fan studies scholars focused on positive affect, that is to say on like and love, have also acknowledged and thoughtfully explored tensions between and within particular fandoms. Ambivalent fan engagement is…
This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things
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 rac…
The House That Fox Built
This article focuses on 4chan’s /b/ board, a—if not the—pillar of online trolling activity. In addition to chronicling the history of the site, as well as the emergence of the nebulous collective known as Anonymous, the article considers the ways in which early media representations of and subsequent reactions to trolling behaviors on /b/ helped create and sustain an increasingly influential subculture. Echoing Stanley Cohen’s (1972) analysis of …
LOLing at tragedy
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 networki…
The House That Fox Built
This article focuses on 4chan’s /b/ board, a—if not the—pillar of online trolling activity. In addition to chronicling the history of the site, as well as the emergence of the nebulous collective known as Anonymous, the article considers the ways in which early media representations of and subsequent reactions to trolling behaviors on /b/ helped create and sustain an increasingly influential subculture. Echoing Stanley Cohen’s (1972) analysis of …
It Wasn't Just the Trolls
When considering the extremist turn of the Trump-era internet, it is critical to interrogate the influence of subcultural trolling on and around 4chan from 2008 to 2012. The troll space isn't the only space worth interrogating, however. During this same period, there was a marked overlap between subcultural trolling and the nebulous, discursive category known colloquially as 'internet culture.' Both were swiftly absorbed into broader popular cult…
LOLing at tragedy
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 networki…
The House That Fox Built
This article focuses on 4chan’s /b/ board, a—if not the—pillar of online trolling activity. In addition to chronicling the history of the site, as well as the emergence of the nebulous collective known as Anonymous, the article considers the ways in which early media representations of and subsequent reactions to trolling behaviors on /b/ helped create and sustain an increasingly influential subculture. Echoing Stanley Cohen’s (1972) analysis of …
This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things
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 rac…
“You’re terrible, don’t ever change!”
This chapter focuses on the insight forwarded—seemingly unwittingly—by Best Worst Movie . While all fan engagement is ambivalent at this most basic structural level, certain forms of fan engagement are ambivalent at the content level as well. Fan studies scholars focused on positive affect, that is to say on like and love, have also acknowledged and thoughtfully explored tensions between and within particular fandoms. Ambivalent fan engagement is…
It Wasn't Just the Trolls
When considering the extremist turn of the Trump-era internet, it is critical to interrogate the influence of subcultural trolling on and around 4chan from 2008 to 2012. The troll space isn't the only space worth interrogating, however. During this same period, there was a marked overlap between subcultural trolling and the nebulous, discursive category known colloquially as 'internet culture.' Both were swiftly absorbed into broader popular cult…
You Are Here
"A novel analysis of social media network manipulation that shows how everyday users can limit the spread of harmful, misleading, and objectively false information"
In a Land of Venn Diagrams
This essay is part of a forum that includes Tom Mould's article "Counter Memes and Anti-Legends in Online Welfare Discourse" (2022) and response essays published in this issue ("Vaccine Hesitancy Counter Memes" by Anastasiya Astapova and "Memes and Representations of Race: An Analysis of Historical Representations of Welfare" by Mia Moody-Ramirez)
The Shadow Gospel
s framings of avertive apocalypticism and dark enchantment were especially influential to our thinking, and his comments on our final draft were enormously helpful.Others have also provided thoughtful feedback and sound boarding: thank you to Jordan and Anne for constant insights and support and to Michelle D. Brock for the generous exchange of ideas at such a pivotal
Computer Science (5 works) · Media studies (5 works) · Psychology (5 works) · Sociology (5 works) · Law (4 works) · Political science (4 works) · Crime, Deviance, and Social Control (3 works) · Gender, Feminism, and Media (3 works) · History (3 works) · Internet privacy (3 works)