Troll Tracking: Examining Rhetorical Circulation of Anti-Intellectual Ideologies in Right-Wing Media Attacks

Publication Date

3-1-2021

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Communication, Culture and Critique

Volume

14

Issue

1

DOI

10.1093/ccc/tcaa035

First Page

149

Last Page

165

Abstract

This case study proposes a method of troll tracking to analyze how right-wing media attacks circulate and contribute to increasing anti-intellectualism in the United States. Given the increase in right-wing political "news"sites as originators of trolling activity and their propensity to espouse anti-intellectualism, we are interested in understanding more deeply how particular instances of this targeted outrage become rhetorical. Our analysis reveals how metaknowledge circulates misinformation through commentary that carries anti-intellectual ideologies rapidly across time and space. This process of detachment reveals important implications about the (re)production of anti-intellectual ideologies, the evocation of collective outrage that manifests as sexism and transphobia, and the gatekeeping of academic knowledge production.

Keywords

Anti-Intellectualism, Circulation, Rhetorical Detachment, Social Media Attacks, Trolling

Department

Communication Studies

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