Social Media and Society Final Project: Literature Review

The primary works of literature that will be examined and reviewed are based upon the social media phenomena and work closely with the idea of the union of this with politics and societal opinions. It will only support and bring more importance to why this issue needs to be discussed once more in a serious conversation and why it is not simply feminist bitching or millennial whining because we got too many trophies as small children on parentally dominated recreational sports teams. The question that is being asked throughout is if what we know about rape culture has changed due to this recent populist presidential nominee and the things that he has made overtly clear  that he stands for, and the social media interactions and conversations that have occurred in reaction to this.

This analysis appropriately begins in Chapter 8 The Influence of User-Controlled Messages on Candidate Evaluations of the book Controlling the Message by Farrar-Meyers and Vaughn. “The rise of social media as a potent political force in campaign politics played a major role in journalistic analyses of the 2012 presidential election,” (Hawthorne and Warner, The Influence of User-Controlled Messages on Candidate Evaluations). It has been agreed that President Obama was the first president to use social media, namely Twitter, as we know it now, and this social media use has only increased since then, as seen with Trump. This rise in social media use in presidential and political settings translates into the amount and speed of audience response to the content shared, in this case, by Trump in relation to the topic of rape culture. “The main purpose of social media is to provide users the ability to communicate with others in the same digital space,” (Hawthorne and Warner, The Influence of User-Controlled Messages on Candidate Evaluations). This is the trend that arises for all topics within the social media platform, and this is no different for the topic of rape culture. “…social media offers users an unprecedented amount of control over the message environment…The ease of communication through these platforms has facilitated broad-ranging political discussion and activity,” (Hawthorne and Warner, The Influence of User-Controlled…). This environment that is surrounding rape culture has changed due to the rhetoric of Trump and the turning to social media to further spread this rhetoric. Many people turn to social media platforms as a way to find others who are like-minded in order to find a sense of comfort and safety, especially with our current presidential nominee and the hatred and fear he has inspired. Turning to Facebook, President Obama made a mark on this social media platform as well. “Politicians such as Barack Obama have started to capitalize on the possibility that familiar networks will have greater social influence through social media,” (Hawthorne and Warner, The Influence of User-Controlled…). Trump capitalizes heavily off of the comfort and format of Twitter and in becomes a raging, old, orange Twitter troll that comes out to cause destruction at three in the morning.

In Chapter 8 of The Social Media Reader by Michael Mandiberg the concept of trolling arises in how it has become more prevalent and a culture of its own in social media. The evolution of phreaking, to hacking, to trolling is viewed in conjunction with politics and Internet culture in order to examine the cause and effect relationship.  “In recent times, the aesthetic of audaciousness has veritably exploded with the Internet trolls—a class of geek whose raison d’etre is to engage in acts of merciless mockery/flaming or morally dicey pranking. These acts are often delivered in the most spectacular and often in the most ethically offensive terms possible,” (Coleman; Phreaks, Hackers, and Trolls). In regards to the tweets and Facebook posts analyzed, they are more angry, upset in an attempt to educate, rather than of a trolling nature. I am sure that there are trolls out there who are wreaking havoc on any platform possible, but the majority of the posts that have been accessible, they are not of this nature. It could be debate that ignorance could be confused with trolling, and therefore a miscommunication of ethical substance could be at hand. “The question that remains, or course, is whether there is any ethical substance to these spectacular antics, especially those of the troll, whose spectacle if often generated through merciless mocking, irrelevant pranking, and at times, harassment,” (Coleman; Phreaks, Hackers, and Trolls). Does ignorance count as trolling? At the rate in which it arises, it should. However, this persona of the trickster or the troll can be argued that it serves as an “alibi, a defense, or an apology for juvenile, racist, or misogynistic behavior,” (Coleman, Phreaks, Hackers, and Trolls). In some cases I believe this may be true, but there is simply too much content that is being born each day on social media to have a truly accurate knowledge of the statistics behind the motives.

This idea of trolling is able to make a connection with ‘flaming’, which is what Dr. Steven Vrooman discusses in his article The Art of Invective; Performing identity in cyberspace. “There are many definitions of this phenomenon. In essence, flaming can be defined as the use of invective and/or verbal aggressiveness in computer-mediated communication (CMC),” (Vrooman). Trump can be seen as using invective language throughout his campaign; namely on Twitter if we are focusing on the CMC aspect of this. This flaming only enhances the hate and ignorance-filled platform that he speaks from and makes individuals s in society feel as if it is acceptable for them to participate in similar behavior. Trump is participating in by speaking and carrying himself in this way is a performance of sorts; it is hard to know exactly if this is his genuine character, or an enhanced shade of who he truly is, but his consistency leads more towards the first. This performance is, as Vrooman describes, “The perspective offered here is that flaming is part of what Bell calls ‘the most virulent contest on-line’, the creation, maintenance, and performance of identity (Plotz and Bell, 1996: 183),” (The Art of Invective).

Moving to the third and final point that revolves around books used from class assignment and discussion, Chapter 8 of Controlling the Message is examined once more. As with anything else, everything must be put into context in order to understand it for what it truly is, as unattached from bias and distortion of intention as possible. “Given past findings that political communication can influence candidate perceptions in given context of ads, news media, and debates, we expect social media political communication to have some effect on candidate evaluations,” (Hawthorne and Warner, The Influence of User-Controlled…). These perceptions are automatically distorted for each individual due to the political party they affiliate with. For Trump supporters, anything racist, sexist, misogynistic, or white supremacist that comes out of his mouth or arises on his social media feeds is probably something that they agree with, for they voted for him, and they perceive what he says as honest, going against the grain (government), and he is going to make things great again (if you are a wealthy white man). These perceptions that Trump supporters have created about him and what he says have transferred into the discussion of rape culture. If Trump denies that sexual assault, rape culture, sexism, and misogyny, are real aspects of our society, it would make sense that his followers would agree with this thwarted logic. The rising of Trump has brought out the inner Trump in millions of people across the country and this only hinders the discussion and perception of rape culture as compared to discussions and perceptions the past. This future is not leading us forward, but backwards, perhaps decades. However this may translate differently due to the data I have found via social media. 

“Since campaign communication is inherently context dependent, any effect of social media communication should also be tied to a specific context,” (Hawthorne and Warner, The Influence of User-Controlled…). I think this context is what is lost when the discussion and perception of rape culture arises. Many want to defend Trump and themselves, for no one wants to say they are a racist, misogynist, sexist, or supporter of sexual assault and rape, so they throw out the context and try to make empty justifications for their beliefs and for Trumps platform. A perfect example of this is provided in this chapter that revolves around rape culture as well. “For example, discussion of Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin’s controversial remarks about “legitimized rape” (e.g., Lieb 2012) should have a negative effect on his standing because the context of the conversation is not positive for him,” (Hawthorne and Warner, The Influence of User-Controlled…). This is exactly what has and does happen for Trump. Things that he says in regards to sexual assault and rape culture should hurt him significantly in regards to followership and number of votes he received, but this was not the case, for he won the election. He won. He actually won. 
I also examined various articles from Huffington Post, as well as from NY Mag, The New York Times, and The Atlantic that had compiled Trump rhetoric or had expanded upon it. These sources may not be purely academic, but I believe that they offer important and valid insight to social and political dynamics that everyday people may be experiencing, rather than a select audience. They simply added another layer of depth to the data that I had already accumulated. 

I think that this uncovers truths about our society that was encouraged by a leader who is unsettlingly ignorant and dangerous in his way of thinking to become proud for their own ignorance and to then share this ignorance via social media. Many are thriving with the falsities and ignorance that Trump is spouting, for it allows them to remain comfortable in the small, uneducated boxes that they have grown to adulthood in, and have never strayed. This clinging to the “ good old days”, religious “truths”, and fighting back against the perceived unfairness of the government with Trump as the prodigal leader is a common theme. As Women’s Studies and English professor, Dr. Pamela Johnston suggests in an interview I conducted with her on this topic, "In the end, misogyny won the day. Which just goes to show that, as a culture, we still have a lot of work to do,” (Johnston). 

These are the same individuals who view silent protesting as whining and that it shouldn’t be happening. When it comes to social media, there is not really a beginning or an end, but rather a constant ebb and flow of information and opinions; in this case, the election and the conversation that it has spurred. This contributes to our definitions and perceptions of realities like rape culture that are consistently discredited and not given the proper level of seriousness and concern, but are also advocated for in a surprising amount as well.