{"id":392,"date":"2018-09-27T19:44:55","date_gmt":"2018-09-27T23:44:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig101-2018\/?page_id=392"},"modified":"2018-09-27T19:44:55","modified_gmt":"2018-09-27T23:44:55","slug":"trolling-the-interfaces","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig101-2018\/trolling-the-interfaces\/","title":{"rendered":"Trolling the Interfaces"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<h5>Introduction<\/h5>\n<p>As we learned from <a href=\"https:\/\/qz.com\/582113\/were-the-reason-we-cant-have-nice-things-online\/\">Whitney Phillips<\/a>, trolling can take many forms. The most inclusive definition of trolling includes everything from simply disagreeing with someone online to sending rape threats, exposing personal details (doxing), or SWATting. According to a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pewinternet.org\/2017\/07\/11\/online-harassment-2017\/\">2017 Pew Research Center study<\/a>, 41% of U.S. adults have faced some sort of harassing behavior online, and 18% have faced physical threats, prolonged harassment over a period of time, sexual harassment, or stalking.<\/p>\n<p>Some well-known counter-trolling strategies include the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/culture\/australia-culture-blog\/2014\/nov\/28\/alanah-pearce-tells-on-her-internet-trolls-to-their-mothers\">Name and Shame<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/blogs-trending-34945756\">Public Humiliation<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/theconversation.com\/dont-feed-the-trolls-really-is-good-advice-heres-the-evidence-63657\">Don\u2019t Feed the Trolls<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/twentytwo.fibreculturejournal.org\/fcj-157-still-searching-for-safety-online-collective-strategies-and-discursive-resistance-to-trolling-and-harassment-in-a-feminist-network\/#para27\">Shine a Light on Them<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>But what if the problem isn\u2019t simply the trolls, but the platforms trolls use: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, YouTube, Reddit, and so on. What if there\u2019s something about the software that enables or even encourages trolls? What if the platform itself is complicit with online harassment?<\/p>\n<p>And conversely, what if the platforms could be redesigned to stem the tide of harassment and abuse?<\/p>\n<h5>The Problem<\/h5>\n<p>Working in groups, you are going to spend today\u2019s class coming up with speculative redesigns for existing online platforms that might discourage trolling in its most toxic forms. Your solutions should be technically feasible and balance competing concerns such as privacy, safety, and free expression. (Though be sure you understand <a href=\"https:\/\/xkcd.com\/1357\/\">what &#8220;free speech&#8221; actually means<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<h5>The Process<\/h5>\n<ol>\n<li>Divide into 5 groups [2 minutes]<\/li>\n<li>Each group pick a platform. Possibilities include Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr, Reddit, etc. [5 minutes]<\/li>\n<li>Solve the problem of harassment on that platform! Go beyond the obvious (a Block button!). Think about changes to the user interface, changes to the behind-the-scenes algorithms, changes to settings, and so on. There is one important caveat: the solution must not violate the essence of the platform\u2014for example, eliminating anonymity on 4chan. [10 minutes]<\/li>\n<li>Sketch out speculative screenshots, flowcharts, and detailed close-ups on the whiteboard. Prepare to pitch your solution to the class. [5 minutes]<\/li>\n<li>Pitch your group\u2019s procedural solution! [5 minutes\/group]<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h5>Credits<\/h5>\n<p>The inspiration for this lab comes from the work of Jim Brown and Becca Tarsa, whose chapter \u201cComplicit Interfaces\u201d appears in <i>Precarious Rhetorics <\/i>(Parlor Press, 2017).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Introduction As we learned from Whitney Phillips, trolling can take many forms. The most&#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig101-2018\/trolling-the-interfaces\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-full.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-392","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/PaaBmC-6k","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":43,"url":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig101-2018\/guidelines\/","url_meta":{"origin":392,"position":0},"title":"DIG 101 Guidelines","author":"Dr. Sample","date":"August 13, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Professor Mark Sample Chambers 3286 Office Hours: 1:30-2:30pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and by appointment Learning Outcomes By the end of the semester, you will be able to do the following: Contextualize Internet culture within the broader history of culture and technology Critique computational approaches to questions about arts and\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":558,"url":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig101-2018\/case-study-7-life-online\/","url_meta":{"origin":392,"position":1},"title":"Case Study 7 &#8211; Life Online","author":"Dr. Sample","date":"November 13, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Overview This case study introduces you to the concept of Life Online, particularly the way in which your online activity can come back to haunt you in very tangible and problematic ways. We will discusses the implications the arise when offline life and online life merge. The case study involved\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":538,"url":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig101-2018\/life-online-project\/","url_meta":{"origin":392,"position":2},"title":"Life Online Project","author":"Dr. Sample","date":"November 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Just as Jonathan Harris and Greg Hochmuth's Network Effect explores the impact of social media while simultaneously encouraging us to go offline, the Life Online Project asks you to document and analyze what life online is like in 2018, but in an offline form. This is an open-ended project that\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":295,"url":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig101-2018\/case-study-2-congressional-hearing\/","url_meta":{"origin":392,"position":3},"title":"Case Study 2 (Congressional Hearing)","author":"Dr. Sample","date":"September 13, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Overview This case study takes the form of a congressional hearing into the impact of social media. Five senators will question everyday users of the Internet, as well as executives of leading social media platforms, including HeadShot, Bitter, and the online retail juggernaut Sahara. The hearing will occur over two\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":96,"url":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig101-2018\/blogging\/","url_meta":{"origin":392,"position":4},"title":"Blogging","author":"Dr. Sample","date":"August 24, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Rationale Almost every day of class a group of students is tasked with posting to the course blog. There are several reason why I emphasize blogging in my classes: The blog posts jump-start the day\u2019s conversations. The posts provide an opportunity for you to share current events and recent phenomena\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":312,"url":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig101-2018\/case-study-guidelines\/","url_meta":{"origin":392,"position":5},"title":"Case Study Guidelines","author":"Dr. Sample","date":"September 16, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Overview Roughly every other Friday a small group of students will lead the rest of the class through a role-playing case study focused on some slice of digital culture. The group will prepare scenarios inspired by a real life examples and assign roles for students. The precise topic of a\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig101-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig101-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig101-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig101-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig101-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig101-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":393,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig101-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/392\/revisions\/393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig101-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}