2020/09/20 by Thomas Colley, Martin Moore · 109 citations
Computer Science · Social Sciences · #Artificial intelligence #Business #Computer science #Data science #Epistemology #Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection #Influencer marketing #Law #Marketing #Media studies #Opposition (politics) #Perspective (graphical) #Political science #Politics #Public relations #Social Media and Politics #Sociology #Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence #Thread (computing) #Value (mathematics)
paper · pdf · doi:10.1177/1461444820948803
published in New Media & Society 24(1), 5-30 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 2020/09/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/24
In 2019, the authors led a workshop at King’s College London examining how to study 4chan and assess their association with the Alt-Right. Unbeknownst to the authors, a participant was a 4chan user and started a mid-workshop thread on its notorious /pol/ (politically incorrect) board. It gained significant attention. Reviewing it later, the authors realised that this parallel thread illustrates perfectly the challenges researching 4chan – and similar – communities. We conducted discourse analysis on this unique dataset, providing an alternative perspective to predominant anthropological and informatic approaches. Our analysis enhances understanding of ‘free-extremist’ communities such as 4chan in several ways. It assesses how the /pol/ community responds to observation and provides new insights into roles influencers might have in radicalising others. It illustrates the value of discourse analysis in evaluating users’ associations with the Alt-Right. Finally, it proposes ways researchers can overcome the challenges faced when analysing such communities.