Joseph Walther
Distinguished Professor of Communication and Bertelsen Presidential Chair in Technology and Society / University of California, Santa Barbara
Talk recording
Previous research into online hate on social network sites--racist, religious, anti-immigrant, misogynistic, and similar attacks--assumes it is a product of individual malevolence. This talk describes new research advancing a social processes approach to understanding the propagation of hate messages in social media: networked, socially organized, performative, and motivated and gratified by social approval in online relationships using social media’s facilitating affordances. It concludes with speculation over new hypotheses, new methods, and possible outcomes.
About the speaker
Joe Walther holds the Bertelsen Presidential Chair in Technology and Society at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and is a Distinguished Professor of Communication. He is a visiting scholar at the the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University this year. A Fulbright Scholar and a Fellow of the International Communication Association, his research focuses on the impact of relational dynamics in the attitudes and behaviors people develop via mediated interaction, in interpersonal relationships, groups, and intergroup conflict.
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