This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things: Mapping the Relationship between Online Trolling and Mainstream Culture

Why the internet troll problem is actually a culture problem: how online trolling fits comfortably within today’s media landscape.

Internet trolls live to upset as many people as possible, using all the technical and psychological tools at their disposal. They gleefully whip the media into a frenzy over a fake teen drug crisis; they post offensive messages on Facebook memorial pages, traumatizing grief-stricken friends and family; they use unabashedly racist language and images. They take p...