“Wtf bitch jus swallow my kids and be on your way”: a mixed methods approach to understanding types of trolling in interaction

Trolling has been used as an umbrella term by the media to describe all manner of unwanted types of online behaviour. There have been attempts in academia to define and categorise trolling behaviour, but to date there is no single, agreed definition. The current programme of research used mixed-methods in order to develop a definition of trolling, propose a typology of the behaviour and to consider different responses to trolling. Study one used a content analysis to identify ten aspects of trolling behaviour, which informed study two. Study two used Smallest Space Analysis to identify types of trolling behaviour. Two behaviours are proposed; provocative trolling and performance trolling. Provocative trolling consists of more concerning and potentially harmful behaviours and it is recommended that this type should be prioritised in terms of policy and legislative responses. Tactics used in provocative trolling included discrimination, depictions of fantasies, sexually violent and aggressive comments and conspiracy or politically motivated commenting. Performance trolling was less potentially harmful and included inappropriate jokes, enjoyment of others' misfortune, and random or irrelevant comments. Study three used discourse analysis to look at interactions between trolls and the public. There were five types of responses to trolling identified. The low-risk strategies often did not lead to further interactions with the trolls and included ignoring the trolls and attempting to reason with them. The high-risk strategies were more likely to be followed by further abusive comments and included offensive responding, labelling commenters as trolls and mirroring responders. Mirroring responding is a novel finding not found in the previous trolling literature and this may be due to the difference in methods used. Other important findings include how anonymity and the normalisation of aggression online are important precursors to trolling behaviour so these need to be addressed in order to manage trolling. Furthermore, there were important findings surrounding the impact of trolling on women and minority groups with the current minimisation of the impact of trolling and how ‘not feeding the trolls’ may be allowing individuals to be silenced.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

PhD

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

PhD thesis

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Middlesex University

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Long, E.L.

Identifier

oai:repository.mdx.ac.uk:3681x2

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.mdx.ac.uk:3681x2