Beyond Lurking and Trolling: Examination of College Student Literacy Practices in Online Asynchronous Discussion Spaces Agnieszka Markiewicz Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under the Executive Committee of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Columbia University 2018 © 2018 Agnieszka Markiewicz All rights reserved ABSTRACT Beyond Lurking and Trolling: Examination of College Student Literacy Practices in Online Asynchronous Discussion Spaces Agnieszka Markiewicz Over the course of the past 15 years, college student populations as well as information technologies have undergone dramatic changes. Today’s college populations are more diverse as women, minorities, non-traditional students and veterans are the fastest growing populations. Additionally, the number of people enrolled in colleges has gone from 4.9 million in 2000 to 20.2 million in 2017. Simultaneously, the growth and proliferation of information technologies have changed the ways information is consumed and social relationships formed. The Internet, and discursive spaces that are specific to it, allow people to learn at their own pace, connect across national borders, and experiment with identities. This dissertation worked towards understanding how various college populations interact with online spaces, particularly asynchronous online spaces such as Reddit, Quora, Amazon product reviews, and various other spaces. The qualitative data collected for the dissertation included a survey of 84 participants and interviews with 12 participants. The data were analyzed using a theoretical framework based on Socio- Cultural Theories of Literacies, Critical Media Studies, and Postcolonial Theory. Findings and implications of this dissertation show a need for increased involvement in critical media literacies education of college students, and a need for educators to build culturally responsive, civic-based, and globally minded curricula rooted in student information technology usage. Table of Contents LIST OF FIGURES……………………...…………………………………………….. iii LIST OF TERMINOLOGY………………………...………………………………….. v Chapter 1: Introduction……………………...…………………………………………. 1 Background to the study……………………...…………………………..…… 3 Rationale……………………...……………………………………………….. 6 Problem statement ……………………...…………………………………..… 8 Research questions……………………...…………………………………..… 9 Pilot study results……………………...……………………………………… 9 Chapter 2: Literature review……………………...………………………………….… 12 Theoretical framework……………………...………………………………… 12 Critical media studies……………………...……………………………...…… 15 Socio-cultural theories of literacy/literacies……………………...…………… 30 Postcolonial theory……………………...………………………………..…… 45 Chapter 3: Data collection and study design……………………...…………………… 57 Mode of research and researcher’s role……………………...………………… 58 Sampling……………………...…………………………………………….….. 59 Survey participants……………………...………………………………...…… 60 Interview participants……………………...……………………………...…… 60 Interview analysis……………………...……………………………………… 62 Survey analysis……………………...………………………………………… 66 Connecting analysis……………………...………………………………..…… 67 Reciprocity……………………...………………………………………..…….. 68 i Duty to participants……………………...………………………………..…… 68 Informed consent……………………...…………………………………..…… 69 Chapter 4: Results and discussion……………………...……………………………… 70 Spaces and possibilities……………………...………………………………… 72 Peer cultures……………………...……………………………………………. 103 Participation: Lurkers, writers, power writers…………………….....………… 142 Knowledge literacies……………………...………………….……….……….. 157 Social literacies……………………...…………………………………….…… 194 Value……………………...……………………………………………….…… 214 Chapter 5: Conclusion……………………...…………………………………………... 218 References……………………...……………………………………………………….. 232 Appendix A: Student Survey……………………...……………………………………. 243 Appendix B: Researcher Memos……………………...………………………………... 245 ii List of Figures Figure 1: Screen shot of Reddit Front Page from April 14, 2018 P. 78 Figure 2: Screen shot of r/worldnews from April 14, 2018 P. 80 Figure 3: Screen shot of the r/worldnews community rules P. 82 Figure 4: 4chan.com front page P. 83 Figure 5: 4chan Disclaimer P. 85 Figure 6: 4chan discussion forum P. 86 Figure 7: Quora.com front page and log-in options P. 87 Figure 8: Quora individual feed P.88 Figure 9: Usage of text, screen grabs, and memes in Quora discussion P.89 Figure 10: Screen shot of a star review assigning process on Amazon.com P. 90 Figure 11: Changing name on profile display on Amazon.com P. 90 Figure 12: Amazon.com review P. 91 Figure 13: Review and comments section opened up on Amazon.com P. 92 Figure 14: The New Yorker cartoon “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a P. 104 dog” by Peter Steiner (in Fleishman, 2000) Figure 15: Survey participant observations about negative writing culture P. 114 Figure 16: Survey participants’ reactions to negative writing culture online P. 116 Figure 17: Survey participant advice for encountering trolls P. 121 Figure 18: Survey participant reasons for crossing the participation threshold P. 148 Figure 19: Survey participants observations about multimodal content in P. 152 AODS iii Figure 20: Survey participants observations about graphic content in AODS P. 153 Figure 21: AODS role in participants’ lives P. 157 Figure 22: Participant information gathering strategies P. 170 Figure 23: Literacies gained through participation in AODS P. 177 Figure 24: Survey participants definitions of online reviews P. 195 Figure 25: Survey participant strategies for community formation P. 204 Figure 26: Survey participant evaluation of AODS participation P. 213 iv List of terminology (in alphabetical order) − Asynchronous/asynchronous communication: online communication that does not require immediate response as lag between the posting and reading of a message. Asynchronous communication varies from chat-based systems which assume and rely on the presence of two or more persons during the communication exchanges. − Bitmoji: more complex emojis that are often avatars and may be created by apps, or complex textual manipulation. − Emoji: ideograms that represent an idea and have a Unicode character set the same way Cyrillic has a Unicode character set Emojis began as multimodal components of text messages and have permeated into online writing. − Gifs: a short video that has been looped and plays on a loop. − Image board: online space that is organized around haring and commenting on images. Images can be peer-produced (ex: drawings, gifs, photographs) or come from other sources (ex: the internet, news sources, etc.). − Lurking/lurker: an online reader who does not reveal their presence in an online forum. − Meme: images that have been accepted by a given community as meaningful, and become augmented with each peer’s own words. For instance, the “Confession Bear” meme includes a specific image of a bear with text above and text below. Each peer who wishes to participate in a certain type of posting, or literacy event, creates their own confession and posts it to the platform as a conversation starter. v − Message board: online spaces that is organized around writing posts and commenting on posts of others. Posts can contain hyperlinks and references to other content online and off. − Moderators: many online discussions (ex: subreddits) are moderated. The role of moderators is to ensure that the norms and standards of the discussion follow community rules. Moderators can be volunteer members of the community, paid employees of the platform, or a combination of both. Many platforms feature several levels of moderation (ex: moderators, supermoderators). − Noob: moniker given to inexperienced, or new users on many platforms. − Online Asynchronous Discussion Spaces (AODS): online spaces where users/peers can post messages that then may be read and responded to by other peers/users. AODS may vary in terms and conditions of usage, levels of anonymity, rules of posting, membership requirements, content types, and other factors. As opposed to chat-based or social media spaces, AODS do not require or assume an audience or recipient either immediately or within a near time frame. AODS do not operate based on a pre-existing network of connections. − Peer to peer networks: internet-linked computer systems. − Troll/trolling: an online user who produces inflammatory remarks or seeks to subvert the flow of online discussion. Motivations and practices of trolls/trolling vary widely. − User name/peer name: self-selected or assigned moniker peers use in online forums. − Vlogging: video blogging. vi Acknowledgments This dissertation would not be possible without the care and guidance of Dr. Ernest Morrell who has been an inspiration and a source of much needed wisdom. Thank you for being patient and for working with me long-distance. Your hard work made me a better scholar, and your teaching has made me a better human. Thanks to Dr. Sheridan Blau who was always willing to support my work and often served as an advisor, devil’s advocate, and committee member. Thanks to Dr. Yolanda Sealy-Ruiz, Dr. Bob Fetcho, and Dr. Dennis Tenen for serving on my committee, invaluable feedback, and working with me through the many quandaries of this dissertation. Thanks to the participants of this study, the faculty of Teachers College, Columbia University English Education program, the students and faculty of the English Department at Pace University, and the staff of the Writing Center NYC of Pace University. Special thanks to: Dr. Rebekah Johnson—for being the first person to push me towards a PhD Dr. Tom