“No Left, No Right – Only the Game” A Netnographic Study of the Online Community r/KotakuInAction Master of Arts: Media and Communication Studies – Culture, Collaborative Media, and Creative Industries Master’s Thesis (Two-year) | 15 credits Student: Oskar Larsson Supervisor: Maria Brock Year: 2021 Word Count: 15,937 Abstract This thesis examines how 'othering' discourse can be used to construct and negotiate boundaries and shape collective identities within online spaces. Through a mixed-method approach of thematic analysis and a netnographic study, and by drawing on theoretical concepts of online othering and identity formation, this thesis explores how the Gamergate community r/KotakuInAction can be understood in relation to Gamergate, the Alt-Right and society at large. The results show that the community perceive and construct the SJW as a common adversary – a monstrous representation of feminism, progressiveness and political correctness. The analysis also revealed how racist rhetorics and white male anxieties characterize the communitys' othering discourse. Through an in-depth study of user-submitted comment, this thesis argues that r/KotakuInAction's collective identity is fluid and reactionary in nature, characterized by a discourse that is indicative of Alt-Right ideology and white male supremacy. Future research should further explore the network of communities that r/KotakuInAction is part of, as well as examine how the community transform over time. Keywords: Gamergate, Reddit, Alt-Right, Online Othering, Collective Identity, Discourse, SJW, political correctness 1 Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................. 1 List of Figures and Tables ................................................................................................ 4 1. Introduction................................................................................................................... 5 2. Background ................................................................................................................... 8 2.1 Gamergate ............................................................................................................... 8 2.2 The Alt-Right ........................................................................................................ 10 2.3 Reddit.................................................................................................................... 10 3. Literature Review ....................................................................................................... 11 3.1 Gamergate and Beyond......................................................................................... 12 3.2 Redpilling and Radicalisation ............................................................................... 14 3.3 Reddit and Toxicity Online .................................................................................. 15 3.3.1 Kotaku in Action............................................................................................ 16 4. Analytical Framework and Methodology ................................................................... 19 4.1 Analytical Framework .......................................................................................... 20 4.1.1 Online Othering ............................................................................................. 20 4.1.2 Collective Identity ......................................................................................... 21 4.2 Methods ................................................................................................................ 22 4.2.1 Netnography .................................................................................................. 22 4.2.3 Thematic Analysis ......................................................................................... 23 4.2.3 Data Collection and Codebook development ................................................ 24 4.2.4 Research design ............................................................................................. 27 4.3 Research Paradigm ............................................................................................... 28 4.4 Limitations ............................................................................................................ 29 4.5 Ethical Considerations .......................................................................................... 30 4.5.1 Researcher Reflections .................................................................................. 31 5. Key Findings and Analysis ......................................................................................... 32 2 5.1 Identifying and Constructing the Outsider ........................................................... 34 5.1.1 The Woke Social Justice Warrior .................................................................. 34 5.1.2 White Masculine Anxiety .............................................................................. 36 5.1.3 Cancel Culture, Jurnos and Leftism............................................................... 39 5.2 The Collective Gamergater identity...................................................................... 42 6. Discussion and Concluding Remarks ......................................................................... 45 References....................................................................................................................... 49 Appendix A..................................................................................................................... 56 Appendix B ..................................................................................................................... 57 3 List of Figures and Tables Figure 1. Graph showing the distribution of othering discourse per each major theme in percentages. Figure 2. Graph showing distribution per each minor category within theme F – ethnicities and cultures. Figure 3. Side banner from r/KiA, with a quote and depiction of the subreddits official mascot (Reddit, 2021a). Table 1. Descriptive statistics of data recorded from r/KotakuInAction. Table 2. The coding process, including inductive and deductive approaches. 4 1. Introduction It comes as no surprise that the advent of social media permanently changed the way people communicate and interact with each other. The internet came into peoples' lives with the promise to facilitate interaction among friend and family over great distances. It also gave people the freedom to communicate and debate anonymously with an unlimited number of users worldwide (Almerkhi, 2020, p. 294). A perhaps unexpected consequence of this was a radical change in people's behaviour and attitude toward each other, with the introduction of Cyberbullying, toxic technocultures, social media-based harassment campaigns, and cyber threats (Farrell et al., 2019, p. 89). More often than not, these threats were aimed at women and minorities, forcing them to flee social media and even their homes (Blodgett, 2019, p. 184). Research suggests that far-right extremist groups exploit young men's rebellion and dislike of "political correctness" to spread racism, islamophobia and misogyny – a kind of radicalisation happening through message boards and social media (Marwick & Lewis, 2017, p. 29). In 2014, Gamergate was one of the most iconic and prominent online harassment campaigns to date. Proponents of the campaign proclaimed ethos was for a return of ethics in games journalism but has since been proven to have been an intentionally organised façade for misogynistic harassment and systematic abuse in the form of death-, rape-, and bomb-threats (Poland, 2016, p. 157; Todd, 2015, p. 64). The term 'Gamergater' has since become shorthand for a certain kind of geek masculinity that feels marginalized by mainstream society, particularly progressive politics and popular feminism (Marwick & Lewis, 2017, p. 8). To this date, Gamergaters cling to the notion that 'Actually it's about ethics in games journalism. "GamerGate is a consumer revolt triggered by overt politicisation, ethical misconduct, and unprecedented amounts of censorship targeted at gamers." (Reddit, 2021b). This is how the Gamergate community r/KotakuInAction (r/KiA) describes the events of 2014. Members of the community argue that the waves of abuse women within the gaming industry had to endure was merely the result of "a few bad apples". R/KiA is a Reddit based community where 125.000 Gamergaters claim to be discussing the gaming community, gaming industry, media issues and nerd culture (Reddit, 2021a). However, research also suggests that the community regularly resort to aggressive "othering" and 5 the ridiculing and loathing of political correctness, feminism, racial equality, sexual identification, representation, and social justice (Potts et al., 2019, p. 361). These values share a striking resemblance to those of the online extremists known as the "Alt-Right" – an aggregate of websites, forums, personalities, and online communities united in their hatred of liberalism, feminism, political correctness, and multiculturalism (Gallaher, 2021, p. 224). These similarities are unsurprising considering that Gamergate gained early support from the Alt-Right – with researchers arguing that extremist forces hijacked gaming culture to push a political agenda (Greene, 2019, p. 34; Salter, 2018, p. 248) A key characteristic trait of these communities is norms