Representations of 'trolls' in mass media communication: a review of media-texts and moral panics relating to 'internet trolling' <s> The difference of internet trolling <s> As online groups grow in number and type, understanding lurking is becoming increasingly important. Recent reports indicate that lurkers make up over 90% of online groups, yet little is known about them. This paper presents a demographic study of lurking in email-based discussion lists (DLs) with an emphasis on health and software-support DLs. Four primary questions are examined. One, how prevalent is lurking, and do health and software-support DLs differ? Two, how do lurking levels vary as the definition is broadened from zero posts in 12 weeks to 3 or fewer posts in 12 weeks? Three, is there a relationship between lurking and the size of the DL, and four, is there a relationship between lurking and traffic level? When lurking is defined as no posts, the mean lurking level for all DLs is lower than the reported 90%. Health-support DLs have on average significantly fewer lurkers (46%) than software-support DLs (82%). Lurking varies widely ranging from 0 to 99%. The relationships between lurking, group size and traffic are also examined. <s> BIB001 </s> Representations of 'trolls' in mass media communication: a review of media-texts and moral panics relating to 'internet trolling' <s> The difference of internet trolling <s> Preface 1. A linguistic perspective 2. The medium of Netspeak 3. Finding an identity 4. The language of e-mail 5. The language of chatgroups 6. The language of virtual worlds 7. The language of the Web 8. The future of the Internet Index. <s> BIB002 </s> Representations of 'trolls' in mass media communication: a review of media-texts and moral panics relating to 'internet trolling' <s> The difference of internet trolling <s> Online communities are becoming an accepted part of the lives of Internet users, although participation in these communities is dependent on the types of people that form them. Some of the online community's members do not participate, people referred to as lurkers, whereas others who have been in the community for a long time, referred to as elders, participate regularly and support others. Understanding what drives these individuals and how they chose whether or not to participate will lead to online communities that thrive. This paper proposes a conceptual framework to describe what drives such individuals to carry out actions such as posting messages and adding content (level 1), the cognitions they use to determine whether or not to take such actions (level 2) and the means by which they go about carrying out the action in the environment (level 3). Finally, the framework is applied to the problem of encouraging members to participate by discussing the methods by which people can be persuaded to participate by changing the way they interpret their desires and their environment. <s> BIB003
The word 'troll' conjures up different meanings for different people. One way to understand these differences might be to apply the works of Jacques Derrida. Derrida introduced the term 'différence' (i.e., difference) to describe the concept that two terms should be made distinct from one another as entities. He also introduced the term 'différance' (i.e. differance) to indicate that even with these distinctions it is not possible to fully understand a term as an entity without understanding all the words used to describe it. On this basis 'troll' it could be argued has different definitions and meanings in general and that it is not possible to fully conjure up a meaning of that term that is the same to every person. One of the first recorded attempts to define internet trolling was in the mid-1990s with the launch of the book, 'Netlingo', which is now also online where one can see their definition of trolling   . The word 'troll' when used to refer to persons who try to provoke others might have originated in the US military in the 1960s prior to the realisation of the internet for mass communication, with the term, 'trolling for MiGs'  . The term's differance is likely to have come from fishing, because of one 'reeling in' one's opposition, which is also often considered the source of the use of the word trolling in relation to the internet  . The term in this context was reputed to have been used by US Navy pilots in Vietnam in their 'dog-fighting', popularised by the film starring Tom Cruise called Top Gun. Such a practice, of trying to provoke the opposing fighter pilots was not an authorised operation, but was defended by pilots in order to identify their 'strengths and weaknesses' in combat  ). In the US military terms like 'hot pursuit' evolved to describe chasing an opponent's MiG into a restricted area in an 'authorised' way, as provoking them to do so through trolling was forbidden  . So, one can easily see how expressions like 'trolling for newbies' could easily share this difference. For instance, the established members of an online community, called 'elders', can very easily entice newer members into a 'flame war'. It has been argued that this helps newbies identify the strengths and weaknesses in their opinions so that they can more quickly become part of a community, transition from novice to regular (Kim, 2000) . This art was lost by the start of the 21st century, and resulted in a number of research papers discussing the prevalence of non-participation, or lurking , and how this could be overcome through greater involvement of elders BIB003 BIB001  . Others have argued the term troll derived from the Scandinavian tradition of 'trolls' as horrific characters that lurked under bridges BIB002 . If one thinks of the types of trolls that lurk in the background ready to pounce on some unsuspecting user, then it is easy to see how things differance could be formed.