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Toxic Strategies

WELCOME TO DIGITAL WAVES’ SPECIAL DIGITAL CULTURE AND DEMOCRACY SERIES
What we're tracking this election season.
Define American’s Summit on Interdisciplinary Approaches to Combating Online Xenophobia
THE FIELD IN ACTION: National narrative change organization Define American recently collaborated with Cornell University to convene a first-of-its-kind…
 • 
Lincoln Mondy
 and 
Evan Blaise Walsh
Insights from Field-Led Research: 8 Fan-Informed Storyscapes; Reparative Storytelling; Organizing TikTok Creators; and more.
In this issue, we spotlight research and analysis developed by pop culture narrative change field members that informs digital storytelling and…
 • 
Evan Blaise Walsh
, 
Lincoln Mondy
, 
Jessica Clark
, and 
Tracy Van Slyke
Innovating How We Engage with Gaming Communities
THE BIG QUESTION: As we reckon with white supremacists’ efforts to radicalize gamers, what strategies can we employ as a field to reach them instead? We…
 • 
Evan Blaise Walsh
How Can We Cultivate and Mobilize Powerful Video Game Communities?
Audiences for video games and the fans who livestream them are huge and growing. Hollywood has noticed, with high-profile adaptations. What will it take…
 • 
Evan Blaise Walsh
Games as a Far-Right Recruiting Ground
THE BIG TAKEAWAY: Games and the communities that coalesce around them have proven to be fertile recruiting ground for extremists.
 • 
Jessica Clark
What can Rick & Morty and Black Panther fandoms tell us about toxic and pluralist behaviors?
Keep and study this graphic.
 • 
Tracy Van Slyke
 and 
Jeff Yang
The Kids Online Safety Act—Or, a Censorship Bill In Disguise?
From Digital Waves team members Lincoln Mondy and Evan Walsh: For as long as our social media overlords have existed, issues and content related to…
 • 
Lincoln Mondy
 and 
Evan Blaise Walsh
The Digital Waves We Surfed This Summer: AI, #Books, and The Kids Online Safety Act
It’s a link-a-palooza newsletter!
 • 
Tracy Van Slyke
, 
Lincoln Mondy
, 
Evan Blaise Walsh
, and 
Jessica Clark
The Ties Between Sound of Freedom and QAnon; Fan Megasite Attack Offers New Clues on Toxic Tactics
Take a deep breath—then dive in as we analyze how toxic cultural movements are activating their digital narrative strategies.
 • 
Tracy Van Slyke
 and 
Katie Bowers
International Digital Warfare has a New Front: Fanfiction Communities
We recap how fanfiction site Archive of Our Own weathered a DDoS cyberattack in July and explore the community's attempts to resist radicalization and…
 • 
Katie Bowers
Queer Influencers Demand Digital Platform Reform
TL;DR: A public letter by GLAAD and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) signed by 250 LGBTQ and ally actors, notables, and other leaders calls on Facebook…
 • 
Evan Blaise Walsh
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