Media framing of trolling and online abuse: silencing strategies, symbolic violence, and victim blaming

Abstract

This article draws on British newspaper reports in order to demonstrate that trolling, and the media’s subsequent framing of trolling, involves “silencing strategies.” It is important to examine how trolling is discussed within the media to understand how it might frame public opinion, debate, and action, and implicitly victim blame. The article presents findings on the forms of (online) abuse and behaviours related to trolling in media reports, including rape threats, death threats, and body shaming. It also explores the media portrayal of victims of trolling, and the advice given concerning how to respond to trolls. To comply with the message to women, which is propagated in media and popular discourses: “do not feed the troll” means that “symbolic violence” is exercised with the complicity of the victim(s) of trolling, which has broader implications.

Keywords:

• Framing
• online abuse
• rape
• social media
• trolling
• victims

Notes

1. Although the concept of the troll was coined in the late 1980s in relation to trolling subcultures on Use Net forums (Donarth 1999), it was not until 2010 that political controversy and media attention turned to trolling on social media. In Australia and the USA attention centred on the trolling of adolescents who had committed suicide, and murder victims (i.e., the Today Show in 2010 reported on the trolling reaction to the death of three adolescent girls [Trolling: The Today Show Explores the Dark Side of the Internet 2010], while in Australia political outrage centred on the trolling of Facebook tribute pages set up for two murdered adolescents [TG Daily 2010]). In the UK, media and political concern increased following a host of high profile trolling incidents related to Facebook tribute pages (i.e., Colm Cross was sentenced to eighteen weeks in prison for targeting tribute pages including one set up for the celebrity Jade Goody, and another set up for deceased children [Ally Fogg 2010]).

2. Soldani, B. 2015. “‘You should always stand up for yourself.’ Australian DJ Alison Wonderland speaks out after Instagram trolls said they wanted to ‘roofie’ and ‘rape’ her.” Mail Online. October 8.

3. Bolton, D. 2015. “Blogger Kat Blaque tracked down her troll and got him fired.” Independent. September 30.

4. See note 3.

5. Henry, R. 2015. “Uber boss victim of cabbie trolls.” The Sunday Times. July 5.

6. Thistlethwaite, F. 2015. “James May tells Top Gear fans trolling Sue Perkins to ‘kill themselves’ on Twitter.” Express. April 17.

7. Williams, A. 2014. “Twitter troll who threatened to rape Labour MP Stella Creasy in row over Jane Austen appearing on £10 notes is jailed for 18 weeks.” MailOnline. September 29.

8. Mandle, C. 2015. “Nicki Minaj tells trolls to stay off her Instagram after publicly shaming people for mocking her appearance.” Independent. August 25.

9. Fryer, J. 2013 “How I turned the tables on my trolls.” Mail Online. January 26.