Reading the comments : likers, haters, and manipulators at the bottom of the Web / Joseph M. Reagle, Jr.
2015
HM1169 .R43 2015eb
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Details
Title
Reading the comments : likers, haters, and manipulators at the bottom of the Web / Joseph M. Reagle, Jr.
ISBN
0262328879 (electronic bk.)
9780262328876 (electronic bk.)
9780262328883
0262328887
9780262028936
026202893X
9780262328876 (electronic bk.)
9780262328883
0262328887
9780262028936
026202893X
Published
Cambridge, Massachusetts ; London, England : The MIT Press, [2015]
Copyright
©2015
Language
English
Description
1 online resource (xii, 228 pages) : illustrations
Call Number
HM1169 .R43 2015eb
Dewey Decimal Classification
302.23/12
Summary
"Online comment can be informative or misleading, entertaining or maddening. Haters and manipulators often seem to monopolize the conversation. Some comments are off-topic, or even topic-less. In this book, Joseph Reagle urges us to read the comments. Conversations "on the bottom half of the Internet," he argues, can tell us much about human nature and social behavior. Reagle visits communities of Amazon reviewers, fan fiction authors, online learners, scammers, freethinkers, and mean kids. He shows how comment can inform us (through reviews), improve us (through feedback), manipulate us (through fakery), alienate us (through hate), shape us (through social comparison), and perplex us. He finds pre-Internet historical antecedents of online comment in Michelin stars, professional criticism, and the wisdom of crowds. He discusses the techniques of online fakery (distinguishing makers, fakers, and takers), describes the emotional work of receiving and giving feedback, and examines the culture of trolls and haters, bullying, and misogyny. He considers the way comment--a nonstop stream of social quantification and ranking--affects our self-esteem and well-being. And he examines how comment is puzzling--short and asynchronous, these messages can be slap-dash, confusing, amusing, revealing, and weird, shedding context in their passage through the Internet, prompting readers to comment in turn, "WTF?!?"--Publisher's description.
Source of Description
OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.
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