{"title":"Trolling asymmetry toward Republicans and Democrats and the shift from foreign to domestic trolling","authors":"Pnina Fichman , Shohana Akter","doi":"10.1016/j.tele.2023.101998","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Online trolling toward politicians is noticeable now more than ever before. The increase in online political discourse in recent years on one hand and the increased efforts to curb the spread of trolling and disinformation on the other hand may affect trolling in opposing direction. We examine how four trolling tactics toward politicians evolved between the 2016 and 2020 US presidential election cycles. We also examine the variations in trolling toward Democrat and Republican politicians in light of the asymmetric nature of American politics. Based on thematic content analysis of 9,461 comments on tweets posted by candidates from both parties, we found differences in the extent and style of trolling tactics between the two election cycles, with a significant increase in insulting. We also found trolling asymmetry in the extent and style of trolling comments toward Republicans and Democrats. Informed by theories of online disinhibition and ideological asymmetry, we discuss the trolling asymmetry, and we explain the change in the degree of trolling tactics over time in light of the shift from the Russian trolls to domestic trolling.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48257,"journal":{"name":"Telematics and Informatics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":7.6000,"publicationDate":"2023-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Telematics and Informatics","FirstCategoryId":"91","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S073658532300062X","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"INFORMATION SCIENCE & LIBRARY SCIENCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Online trolling toward politicians is noticeable now more than ever before. The increase in online political discourse in recent years on one hand and the increased efforts to curb the spread of trolling and disinformation on the other hand may affect trolling in opposing direction. We examine how four trolling tactics toward politicians evolved between the 2016 and 2020 US presidential election cycles. We also examine the variations in trolling toward Democrat and Republican politicians in light of the asymmetric nature of American politics. Based on thematic content analysis of 9,461 comments on tweets posted by candidates from both parties, we found differences in the extent and style of trolling tactics between the two election cycles, with a significant increase in insulting. We also found trolling asymmetry in the extent and style of trolling comments toward Republicans and Democrats. Informed by theories of online disinhibition and ideological asymmetry, we discuss the trolling asymmetry, and we explain the change in the degree of trolling tactics over time in light of the shift from the Russian trolls to domestic trolling.
期刊介绍:
Telematics and Informatics is an interdisciplinary journal that publishes cutting-edge theoretical and methodological research exploring the social, economic, geographic, political, and cultural impacts of digital technologies. It covers various application areas, such as smart cities, sensors, information fusion, digital society, IoT, cyber-physical technologies, privacy, knowledge management, distributed work, emergency response, mobile communications, health informatics, social media's psychosocial effects, ICT for sustainable development, blockchain, e-commerce, and e-government.