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Werken van Ginger Gorman

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female
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Australia
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journalist

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The author spent a ton of time, and energy into this book and there are many great details, but there are some things I wish the author did differently.

"As the saying goes, if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck."

They don't talk about their experience when they were trolled online, they do cover it a little different, it would have been nice to hear their experience since they tell the story of so many others who were trolled online. I know this may not have been the point of the book, but if there is something who doesn't know their history (before writing this book) it would have been nice to cover it.

Since the author is Australian there were some words that I had to look up the definition of, I'm not sure if that is because of how the author writes or if I need to expand my word reach.

There are a couple of times where it was confusing who was saying something, so it would have been nice to include the names of people more often.

The author talks about the experience someone (who shared their story) had with the police which was nice. While the words mention at least one experience, I feel like the author is pro-police.

"yet during my own research for one of the case studies in this book, my questions about how NSW Police investigates cyberhate cases went unanswered despite repeated requests"

"You have to wonder, if the police had actually acted on his initial complaints, if any of this would ever have happened."

"‘Trying to expose these people doesn’t … necessarily require any particular dark web skills. We did it through old-fashioned journalism, which was spending hours and hours and hours trawling through his public social media profiles and putting two and two together. And I think the cops could have done that, but they didn’t.’"

It's unclear in a couple of places where the author mentions "the book", if they are talking about the book you are reading or another book.

Since the author had a publishing date, they are unable to provide an ending to all the stores they covered which leaves the book a little bit unfinished in spots.

There are some spelling and grammar mistakes that I noticed, not sure if it's just in my copy or in every copy.

"‘Victims could go offline but it would make their lives worse,’ she writes, referring to all the lost opportunities and social connections cyberhate targets forgo when they are forced offline"

"it raises an interesting question about whether, as a community, we’re inadvertently outsourcing decisions about justice and law enforcement and hate speech into private hands. Should private companies – as opposed to policing and government agencies – have dominion over whether domestic violence perpetrated online ‘violates their policies’?"
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Authentico | 4 andere besprekingen | Aug 14, 2022 |
In 2013, the author was trolled savagely. This triggered her journalistic interest in trolling, hence the book, which alternates between interviews with victims of predatory trolling, and such trolls themselves, including the infamous weev. There are also a few macro and legal considerations related to what can be done about predatory trolling and its hard-to-measure extent. Ironically, only one chapter is about troll hunting per se.
This is a rather quick read. It is really engaging as stories tend to be. However, one can't help but reach the conclusion that there is not much there there, when it comes to trolling. Despite the author's eagerness to find a reason why people, that, mostly white men, engage in predatory trolling (most often but not exclusively against women), the explanations she comes up with are unsatisfactory. It's not a lack of parental attention. It's not mental illness.
There is no depth to the trolls except bottomless narcissism (hence their willingness to be her center of attention for months on end), immaturity, and boundless sadism enabled by the lack of consequences for their racism, misogyny, and enjoyment at the suffering they cause, all while blaming their victims for their plight and maintaining that words don't hurt, so, don't be a snowflake.
But, as I said, nevertheless, the book is interesting but I wished there had been more sociology in it than psychology. However, one cannot deny the guts it takes to dive into this topic, as well as the risks, as one might imagine she might get trolled again for this book.
I do recommend it but it might leave some readers frustrated that she hadn't gone further in a more sociological direction as opposed to the personal narrative of friendly engagement with the trolls. Again, still worth anyone's time.
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SocProf9740 | 4 andere besprekingen | Jul 11, 2021 |
“Words are a weapon - and a gateway to much greater harm.”

In 2013, journalist Ginger Gorman became the victim of an online witch hunt when a couple she had interviewed about the success of same sex adoption were arrested three years later on charges of producing and distributing child pornography. She was targeted by hateful tweets, subjected to death threats, doxxed, and threatened by hundreds of largely anonymous trolls. The experience was terrifying, but once the vitriol began to recede, Gorman became curious about the world of cyber hate and the trolls who fuel it.

In Troll Hunting: Inside the World of Online Hate and its Human Fallout, Gorman examines the phenomenon of trolling. The narrative, a mix of subjective and objective detail, research, and opinion, is accessible and fascinating, exploring its causes, and its effects.

Gorman’s focus is particularly on those she identifies as predator trolls, whose motives for their actions have little to do with their target, and everything to do with their own narcissistic desire to agitate, offend and degrade. In the hopes of understanding them she spoke with several trolls, even developing a relationship of sorts with a few, and shares her interviews with them. Unlike Gorman I wasn’t surprised to learn that trolls come from all walks of life, though they seem to be overwhelmingly young white males. Some trolls claim their actions are just for the ‘lulz’, others ascribe loftier motives to their behaviour, and then there are those who delight in humiliating and tormenting their targets, sociopaths and sadists for whom the Internet is a endless sea of victims. Few of them are willing to reflect on, admit to, or take responsibility for, the psychological, physical, and economic harm they cause when the anonymity of online discourse affords them the indulgence of socially inappropriate behaviour without consequence.

I have never had any doubt that trolling has real word consequences for the victims who become targets, no right-minded person should. Unfortunately it is taking too long for not only the law and law enforcement to recognise the damage it can inflict, and incite, but also many in wider society who still stubbornly reiterate the playground maxim “sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me”, despite evidence to the contrary.

I was perhaps expecting a more thorough psychological profile of trolls than is explored in this book, nevertheless Gorman provides important observations about trolling behaviour and motives generally. I agree in part with the conclusions she has drawn about its causes, though I still believe other issues are also significant contributors.

Providing valuable and thought provoking insights into the issue of cyberhate and trolling, Troll Hunting is a fascinating and perceptive read.
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shelleyraec | 4 andere besprekingen | Dec 12, 2019 |
I began this book on 17th February 2019 and had read all but one chapter by 15th of March, it's taken me the intervening three months to come back to it. Why? Because on the 15th of March a man of the type that this book is about took up an automatic weapon and slaughtered 51 people in two Mosques in Christchurch NZ. Ginger Gorman is a journalist who dived into the murky and dangerous world of internet trolling after she and her family were trolled and threatened online. This is an investigation of the twisted and dangerous world of online trolling, the trolls themselves, the real world consequences of damaged and destroyed lives and the so far inadequate responses from social media companies, law enforcement and governments. An important, if depressing, read.… (meer)
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Figgles | 4 andere besprekingen | Jun 20, 2019 |

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Werken
1
Leden
62
Populariteit
#271,094
Waardering
4.0
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5
ISBNs
7

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