Digital Divides and Structural Inequalities : Exploring the Technomasculine Culture of Gaming

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Negative emotions set in motion : the continued relevance of #GamerGate

This chapter aims at making sense of the #GamerGate (#GG) online harassment campaign that was particularly active in 2014–2015 but to this day continues to produce hateful speech against certain ideologies and minorities in gaming culture. The campaign was especially successful at building online visibility through harassment, and the affective resonances of the issues it raised have since translated into general online campaigning how-to’s, financial earnings, and even political action outside of the gaming sphere. Although the primary breeding ground for this movement was 4chan (and later, 8chan), it only reached public awareness and visibility – hence, effectiveness – through Twitter and, to a lesser extent, through YouTube. In order to understand the emotional charge and political relevance of this campaign, we rely on both quantitative and qualitative activity analyses of the Twitter users that use the hashtag #GamerGate between 2014 and 2019. In addition to analyzing who were the most active tweeters and what kind of resonance their tweets elicited, we looked into the emotional qualities of their communication. The communication strategies of #GG tweeters took advantage of the language and cultural references of the target demographic to drive a set of topics into public discourse and, further, to political activism. This discourse utilized a combination of affective modes, based mainly on resentment and schadenfreude, that we see echoing in many places on the internet. In the end, we argue that while #GG may have been only one instance of a campaign with harassment elements, the sentiments it cultivated and amplified as well as its operational logics have since been successfully employed in many similar online movements, including the current political campaigning associated with the so-called alt-right.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Race, Gender, and Deviance in Xbox Live: Theoretical Perspectives from the Virtual Margins

Race, Gender, and Deviance in Xbox Live provides a much-needed theoretical framework for examining deviant behavior and deviant bodies within one of the largest virtual gaming communities—Xbox Live. Previous research on video games has focused mostly on violence and examining violent behavior resulting from consuming this medium. This limited scope has skewed criminologists\u27 understanding of video games and video game culture. Xbox Live has proven to be more than just a gaming platform for users. It has evolved into a multimedia entertainment outlet for more than 20 million users. This book examines the nature of social interactions within Xbox Live, which are often riddled with deviant behavior, including but not limited to racism and sexism. The text situates video games within a hegemonic framework deploying whiteness and masculinity as the norm. The experiences of the marginalized bodies are situated within the framework of deviance as they fail to conform to the hegemonic norm and become victims of racism, sexism, and other types of harassment.https://encompass.eku.edu/fs_books/1092/thumbnail.jp

Gender, Race and Online Toxicity

Dr. Gray is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor and MLK Scholar at MIT as well as a fellow at the Berkman-Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and a Faculty Visitor at the Social Media Collective at Microsoft Research (Cambridge). Dr. Gray\u27s research examines race, gender, and digital media with an emphasis on gaming culture. She is the author of Race, Gender, and Deviance in Xbox Live (Routledge, 2014) as well as numerous articles in academic and popular journals. Dr. Gray is also a featured blogger and podcaster with Not Your Mama\u27s Gamer

Gender, Race and Online Toxicity

Dr. Gray is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor and MLK Scholar at MIT as well as a fellow at the Berkman-Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and a Faculty Visitor at the Social Media Collective at Microsoft Research (Cambridge). Dr. Gray\u27s research examines race, gender, and digital media with an emphasis on gaming culture. She is the author of Race, Gender, and Deviance in Xbox Live (Routledge, 2014) as well as numerous articles in academic and popular journals. Dr. Gray is also a featured blogger and podcaster with Not Your Mama\u27s Gamer

More than addiction: Examining the role of anonymity, endless narrative, and socialization in prolonged gaming and instant messaging practices

This ethnographic study explores a user’s prolonged engagement within virtual gaming communities. Likening prolonged engagement with addiction, this research provides an alternative perspective into virtual addiction focusing on three interrelated themes: 1) anonymity, 2) endless narrative, and 3) socialization. By employing narrative interviews and virtual observations, the researchers examine two different cultural, racial and age groups’ user experience within console and computer-based multiplayer environments. More specifically, they explore how the three factors (i.e., anonymity; endless narrative; socialization) relate to the prolonged and extended use within these virtual communities and highlight the multifaceted uses of traditional chat services, social media, and the convergence of media existing within these chat communities

Empowerment or Disempowerment? The portrayal of Black Women in Tyler Perry’s films.

In recent years, Filmmaker and Actor, Tyler Perry has entertained families with movies depicting black families and particularly black women and the issues that they face. Drawing from intersectional theory, issues such as poverty, classism, stereotypes, and abuse are examined for their ability to sustain discriminatory practices. Critiques of his work range from empowerment to disempowerment of women. Some reviewers find that the emphasis placed on issues impacting black women and the black community is realistic and empowering in that black women now have a voice and the depictions could be an impetus for positive change for black women (Cunningham, 2011). Others view Tyler Perry’s films as disempowering to black women in that they are often portrayed as needing a man and doomed to poverty and through his portrayal of the Madea character (supposedly strong black woman), patriarchy still prevails in his films (Carey, 2014; Harris & Tassie, 2012). Utilizing critical discourse analysis, this project interrogates the empowerment vs. disempowerment debate present in Black women’s praise and criticism of Tyler Perry movies. Implications for this research are inclusive of digital media literacy to interrogate consumption practices of not only minority viewers but mainstream viewers as well. The stereotypical representations and imagery present in Tyler Perry films has the ability to continue negative assumptions about women of color in particular