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Armchair Detectives and the Social Construction of Falsehoods

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Armchair Detectives and the Social Construction of Falsehoods ARMCHAIR DETECTIVES AND THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF FALSEHOODS: EMERGENT MOB BEHAVIOR ON THE INTERNET A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI’I AT MĀNOA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN SOCIOLOGY MAY 2017 By Penn Pantumsinchai Dissertation Committee: Patricia Steinhoff, Chairperson David Johnson Krysia Mossakowski Wayne Buente Debora Halbert Keywords: Mob justice, online communities, internet vigilantism, collective intelligence, social control, collective behavior ©2017, Penn Pantumsinchai All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I dedicate this dissertation to my father, who was the inspiration for me to pursue my PhD and become the second Doctor of the family. In really tough times, his stories of how he survived the PhD and wrote his dissertation gave me hope. Thank you to my dear mother, who always checked in on me to see how I was doing, and encouraged me to never give up, and never take the easier route. Thank you to my brother Nate, who actually gave me the idea to pursue this murky topic of mob justice in the first place. The dissertation would never have happened otherwise! Thank you to my second brother Dan and his family, Jayon and Sienna, for their endless support and encouragements, as well as a healthy supply of chocolates throughout the years of my PhD. More than anyone, thank you to my beloved aunt, Pabol, who supported my studies through all these years financially and morally. She always believed in me and I hope I have made her proud. My family’s staunch support was the pillar that kept me going. I am indebted and forever grateful to Ryan, my partner in life, who listened to my woes and celebrated my victories throughout the seven years my graduate education, both M.A. and PhD. Thank you to sweet Smokey, our dog, who brought so much joy and companionship during the lonely nights of dissertation writing. They make Hawai’i paradise for me. My deepest appreciation goes to the committee who helped this project come to fruition: Dr. Steinhoff, Dr. Johnson, Dr. Mossakowski, Dr. Buente, and Dr. Halbert. With their patience, guidance, and enthusiasm, I am very proud of the dissertation. Thank you to Nathalie, Sanna, and Mari for the almost daily writing sessions that gave me the time and focus to actually finish writing the dissertation; and Sang, for his expertise in Actor-Network Theory and everything else sociology. The same goes for Rebecka, Kristina, Emiko, Naree, Kei, Vineeda, Jenny, and many others I do not have the space to name – thank you so much. ABSTRACT ‘Truth’ in today’s society is at the center of several ongoing political debates, particularly with the influx of fake news, smear campaigns, and conspiracy theories. The problem with the ‘truth’ has been further exacerbated by the internet and new media technologies that allow multiple truths and facts to exist and fester, often with real world, offline consequences. My research examines an emergent online phenomenon called ‘mob justice,’ which embodies the problems and consequences of our ‘post-truth’ society. Broadly speaking, mob justice online is an episode of collective behavior attempting to be a force of informal control while spiraling out of control itself. Using two large scale cases – the 2013 Boston bombing and the 2015 Bangkok bombing, I analyze how everyday citizens gathered on social media channels to find the bombers in an ad hoc attempt at social justice. Despite using the power of collective intelligence, both cases failed catastrophically, as the swirl of emotions and murky status of facts and rumors caused the online community to accuse, target, and harass innocent people throughout their armchair investigations. However, my findings demonstrate that the online community is not solely responsible for such witch-hunt antics. The online community’s interactions with institutional players such as the police and mass media influence what is considered to be fact and falsehood online. Using various methods such as content analysis, actor network theory, and social mechanisms, I map out how statements online progress through a network of interactions to eventually reach the precarious status of ‘truth.’ I also construct a failure model of mob justice to understand the step-by-step processes and interactions that incite an episode of mob justice stemming from the failure of collective intelligence. The findings as well as the failure model contribute to the dearth of research on this growing phenomenon, and indicate that a typology of mob justice episodes, successful or otherwise, can be created. The research is significant for its implications regarding the power of collective behavior on the internet, how facts and falsehoods are constructed online, and the ever-changing nature of truth in today’s society. Contents CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 1 Literature Review ........................................................................................................................ 4 Social Control Theory ............................................................................................................. 5 Collective Behavior ............................................................................................................... 12 A Short History of Collective Violence ................................................................................ 21 Moral Panics .......................................................................................................................... 23 The Internet and the Mob ...................................................................................................... 25 Research Questions ................................................................................................................... 32 CHAPTER 2. RESEARCH SETTING AND METHODOLOGY ............................................... 34 Case Selection ........................................................................................................................... 34 Data Sources .............................................................................................................................. 37 US: Reddit ............................................................................................................................. 37 Thailand: Pantip and CSI LA Facebook Group..................................................................... 39 Data Collection .......................................................................................................................... 41 Data Collection: Reddit ......................................................................................................... 41 Data Collection: CSI LA Facebook Group ............................................................................ 43 Data Collection: Pantip .......................................................................................................... 43 Content Analysis ....................................................................................................................... 45 Additional Methods of Analysis ............................................................................................... 46 Actor-Network Theory .......................................................................................................... 46 Material Culture ..................................................................................................................... 49 Social Mechanisms ................................................................................................................ 51 Outline of Dissertation .............................................................................................................. 54 CHAPTER 3. ‘WHERE’S WALDO?’: THE 2013 BOSTON BOMBING ANALYSIS ............ 56 The Subreddits........................................................................................................................... 58 Processing Grief ........................................................................................................................ 63 Theories of Motive .................................................................................................................... 66 Where’s Waldo? ........................................................................................................................ 68 Who’s Waldo? ........................................................................................................................... 74 The Aftermath ........................................................................................................................... 82 Reddit VS the Media ................................................................................................................. 86 The Feedback Loop ................................................................................................................... 88 CHAPTER 4. MANO-SOCIAL: THE 2015 BANGKOK BOMBING ANALYSIS .................. 92 The Social Media Channels....................................................................................................... 94 Who Bombed Us? ..................................................................................................................... 98 Why Were We Bombed?......................................................................................................... 103 Are We Scapegoating?
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