Images of Social Justice
  • Home
  • About the Course page
  • Lecture 1 Katie Warfield
  • Lecture 2 Stefanie Duguay
  • Lecture 3 Aaron Goodman
  • Lecture 4 Jules Koostachin
  • Lecture 5 Crystal Abidin
  • Lecture 6 Rebecca Goldschmidt
  • Lecture 7 Lianna Pisani
  • Final Thoughts and review quiz

Week 5: Crystal Abidin

1. Watch The Video Lecture

In this lecture, Crystal Abidin, a digital anthropologist, walks us through a Facebook-specific troll group called SMRT Feedback Ltd.  The narrative that Crystal tells involves the establishment and subsequent scalar global networked growth of this group alongside the various initiatives and causes that the group pursued.  In an intriguing turn, Crystal then describes how one of the founding members of the anonymous group identified himself publicly and used the popular success of the group to leverage a career in internet marketing.  In this reversal, the anti-establishment dissident uses the success of his activities to get a toe-hold in a commercial industry.

2. Required Readings

  1. Coleman, G. (2012) Phreaks, hackers and trolls: the politics of transgression and spectacle.  The Social Media Studies Reader. Chapter 8. New York University Press.
  2. de Seta, G. (2013) Spraying, fishing, looking for trouble: the Chinese Internet and a critical perspective on the concept of trolling.  The Fibreculture Journal. 22. 301-318.

3. Assignments and reflections...

  1. What is a troll?
  2. Why do trolls troll?  Why don't trolls troll, meaning what is the popular discourse about why people troll?
  3. What does the term "soft authoritarianism" mean in terms of the uniqueness of Singaporean media an the Singaporean government?
  4. How are the themes of visibility and invisibility used by the various groups and people in Crystal's narrative about SMRT Feeback Ltd?


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  • Home
  • About the Course page
  • Lecture 1 Katie Warfield
  • Lecture 2 Stefanie Duguay
  • Lecture 3 Aaron Goodman
  • Lecture 4 Jules Koostachin
  • Lecture 5 Crystal Abidin
  • Lecture 6 Rebecca Goldschmidt
  • Lecture 7 Lianna Pisani
  • Final Thoughts and review quiz