All welcome. If you're in the Loughborough area, drop in. ~Andy +++ **Forthcoming O3C Seminars** Monday November 18, 2019: 10am-11am in Room Brockington U112: Professor Scott Wright (Department of Media and Communication, University of Melbourne, Australia) "Sluts and soyboys: MGTOW and the production of misogynistic online harassment." Summary: Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW) are a separatist Manosphere group (digital manifestation of the Men’s Liberation Movement) who focus on individualistic, self-empowering actions as opposed to traditional collective actions typical of Men’s Rights Activists and Incels. This study investigates how the ideology and rhetoric of MGTOW propagates and normalizes misogynistic beliefs through online harassment, using a multi-phased content and thematic analysis of 10,280 tweets from three of the most active MGTOW users on Twitter. The findings document a link between the MGTOW ideology and toxic masculinity, showing that the online harassment generated is deeply misogynistic and polices the boundaries of a heterosexual, hegemonic masculinity. MGTOW’s appeals to rational thinking makes it seem like common sense. The study develops new knowledge about the heterogeneous nature of the Manosphere and its constructions of masculinity. https://www.scott-wright.net/ Note: Scott’s talk will be via videoconference. Wednesday December 11, 2019: 3-4pm in Room Wavy Top WAV120: Dr Kate Miltner (Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California, USA, soon to be at University of Edinburgh) "The challenges of researching online culture." Kate has published scholarly work on a variety of topics relating to structural power and digital cultures, including internet memes, animated GIFs, online antagonism, selfies, and big data. Her work has appeared in the peer-reviewed journals Society, Technology and Human Values, Social Media & Society, International Journal of Communication, First Monday, Feminist Media Studies, and Mobile Media and Communication. It has also been featured in Wired, Slate, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Time, and the BBC. https://katemiltner.com/ Note: the format for this session will be a structured conversation between Kate and Andy Chadwick, with lots of opportunities for questions and discussion from the audience. All welcome! +++ O3C: Researching how social media are shaping our civic culture.<https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/online-civic-culture-centre/>