The Apex Predator President:
Using Ecological Metaphors to Reframe Harm Online
Thursday 18 February 2021, 15:00CET (2pm UK; 9am EST; 11pm JST)When people talk about harm online, they often focus on abusers, antagonists, and other high-profile manipulators. Up to a point, this makes sense; abusers, antagonists, and high-profile manipulators do an enormous amount of damage. However, we miss a great deal—about our networks and ourselves—if we focus solely on the people who set out to do harm. Using Donald Trump as a case study, this talk will explore an ecological approach to harm, one that considers the reciprocal relationship between the worst, most abusive, most toxic actors and the rest of the ecosystem. Approaching harms from such a frame helps illustrate the interdependence of people, their tools, and the broader media environment—and helps better identify what can be done in response.
Whitney Phillips is currently an assistant professor of Communication and Rhetorical Studies at Syracuse university. Phillips’ research explores antagonism and identity-based harassment online; the relationship between vernacular expression, state and corporate influences, and emerging technologies; political memes and other forms of ambivalent civic participation; and digital ethics, including journalistic ethics and the ethics of everyday social media use. Her first book, This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: Mapping the Relationship between Online Trolling and Mainstream Culture (MIT, 2015), won the Association of Internet Researchers 2015 Nancy Baym best book award. She is currently working on her latest book, together with prof. Ryan M. Milner, from the College of Charleston.
Register for this, and other talks in the series [here].