Joanna Cosper

General Media Musings

[joannacosper]

How do we move beyond the trolling community as internet users?

I can’t say I necessarily understand the role trolls play in the function of the internet. I’ve been told there’s a certain sense of satisfaction a troll receives when they treat another user poorly, but how can instances such as doxing and sea-lioning fall under the First Amendment when it puts another person’s safety and security at risk? There’s also the excuse that, because people aren’t interacting face-to-face in a comments section or through social media, it’s easy to rid social filters and treat another person poorly. This still doesn’t excuse or condone this behavior. Movements such as #blacklivesmatter and #metoo have helped expose trolls at their worst, but there needs to be more action. Social media, for instance, needs to step up and take a lesson from Reddit’s recent actions in banning subreddits run by hate groups and extremist moderators. But, how exactly can we as users get there? I would appreciate any and all links that can help me understand what to do next.

[joannacosper]

Does free speech mean literally anyone can say anything at any time? [...] Or is it actually more conducive to the free exchange of ideas if we create a platform where women and people of color can say what they want without thousands of people screaming, ‘Fuck you, light yourself on fire, I know where you live’? If your entire answer to that very difficult question is ‘Free speech,’ then, I’m sorry, that tells me that you’re not really paying attention.

Reddit’s general counsel Melissa Tidwell,from The New Yorker’s “Reddit and the Struggle to Detoxify the Internet”

[joannacosper]

“The unlikely lesson from inventing the hashtag” by Chris Messina (TEDxIzhevsk)

I had the opportunity to see Messina talk about the same subject when I attended TEDxBend in 2019 and his invention left an impression on my understanding of how social media functions. Here, he delves into the journey that eventually led to Twitter’s adoption of the hashtag as a core part of its platform. At the same time, he notes that the hashtag has been an essential conversational piece in garnering awareness about social movements such as #occupywallstreet and #blacklivesmatter. He also talks about adopting a more global mindset within technology in order to get the world as a whole involved in addressing negative issues.

[joannacosper]

As #BlackLivesMatter gained momentum this year, so did #SayHerName.

#SayHerName is a social media campaign that began in 2014 to help raise awareness for Black female cisgender and transgender victims of police brutality. Kimberle Crenshaw, a law professor from UCLA School of Law and civil rights activist, sparked national conversation regarding the theory of intersectionality in the 1980′s, which still remains an incredibly important topic today. Here, Crenshaw works with Chime Zine as an editor to dedicate a whole issue to the #SayHerName hashtag by centering the powerful voices of Black women in order to encourage meaningful conversation about this issue.

[joannacosper]

Twitter is just another means for journalists to see what matters to people, but it's important to note that a large number of active Twitter users are themselves journalists or people with tons of social media savvy who are trying to get their particular message out. To get a fuller understanding of any story, it's important to go directly into a community rather than relying on Twitter.

Asian American Twitter community members, from Knight Foundation’s “How Black Twitter and other social media communities interact with mainstream news”

[joannacosper]

55% of U.S. social media users say they are ‘worn out’ by political posts and discussions

Many social media users in the United States are exhausted by how much political content they see on these platforms.

This has been an intense year for politics. Not only has 2020 brought us to the brink of World War III right before unleashing a pandemic that kept all of us around the world indoors, but it’s also an election year. In America, there is absolutely no escaping that fact, especially on social media. In this article, Pew Research Center takes a good look at at how social media users address political posts and their feelings regarding particular subject matter.