Compared to other online communities, relatively little is written academically about 4chan. This is likely because of the widespread use of politically incorrect language and images, the ephemerality of its content and its generally negative reputation. 4chan is a “image-based bulletin board where anyone can post comments and share images” related to a subject (4chan FAQ). When many hear 4chan, what often comes to mind is a dangerous website full of malicious internet trolls and hackers. While its undeniable that malicious internet trolls and hackers do frequent the site, journalists including those from Fox News, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and so on, assume an association between 4chan headline events and the general 4chan population (Dewey 2014; Fox 2009; Smith 2008). This ‘dangerous place’ has created or popularized numerous memes, or cultural genes, that many enjoy, such as Advice Animals, LolCats and RickRolling (Dawkins 1990; Smith 2008). The purpose of this paper is to expand the understanding of 4chan's culture and examine the usefulness of the moe anthropormophizations (a cute personification of a non-human thing) of 4chan’s boards, the Board-tans, to understanding each board’s culture and 4chan’s larger culture. The paper aims to shed light on the often misinterpreted internet cultural juggernaut that is 4chan.org, specifically identifying aspects about its cultural identity, and methods of communication.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2016-02-01T18:47:36Z No. of bitstreams: 1 felipejosedexavierpereira.pdf: 20718456 bytes, checksum: c0e3d555937cf2e4836c0f66246849f9 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-02-01T20:15:28Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 felipejosedexavierpereira.pdf: 20718456 bytes, checksum: c0e3d555937cf2e4836c0f66246849f9 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-02-01T20:15:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 felipejosedexavierpereira.pdf: 20718456 bytes, checksum: c0e3d555937cf2e4836c0f66246849f9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-04-25 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Esta pesquisa pretende estudar a apropriação e o compartilhamento de sentido nas redes digitais sociais anônimas efêmeras. Tendo o imageboard 4chan como objeto, iremos nos aprofundar numa possível lógica de base que fundamente o fluxo e a produção de sentido nas redes por meio da diminuição do alcance das identidades persistentes e do controle de dados. O pragmaticismo de Peirce servirá de norte enquanto buscamos estabelecer os limites e alcances do 4chan por ele mesmo através da percepção e das regras do lúdico de Huizinga (1938) que antecedem a cultura, em relação ao usuário através das contextualizações de Castells (2003) e dos estudos de caso, e em relação ao princípio da alteridade como terceiro e outro elemento presente na comunicação mediada por computador nas redes anônimas e efêmeras. Concluiremos nossa proposta não só por meio dos estudos de caso mas também com a ajuda de autores especializados neste tipo de cultura e ambiente virtual, como Gabriela Coleman (2012) e Cole Stryker (2011), e de trabalhos de coleta de dados como de Bernstein et al. (2012) e David Auerbach (2012). Esperamos que no fim deste percurso tenhamos esclarecido um pouco deste processo lógico e influente mas ainda pouco estudado dos ambientes digitais anônimos e efêmeros. / This research aims to study the apropriation and share of senses in ephemeral anonymous digital social networks . Having the imageboard 4chan as the object , we will delve into a possible base logic that justifies the flow and production of meaning on networks by decreasing the extent of persistent identities and control data. The Peirce's pragmaticism serve as a north as we seek to establish the limits and scope of 4chan by himself through the perception of playfulness and ludic rules of Huizinga (1938) prior to culture, in relation to the user through the contextualization of Castells (2003) and real case studies, and finally to the principle of otherness as present in the third and another element in computer-mediated communication in anonymous and ephemeral networks. We will complete our proposal not only by means of case studies but also with the help of expert authors in this kind of virtual environment and culture like Gabriela Coleman (2012) and Cole Stryker (2011) , also with studies of data collection as Bernstein et al. (2012) and David Auerbach (2012). Hopefully at the end of this journey we will have clarified some of this logical process and influential yet little-studied of anonymous and ephemeral digital environments .

This study aims to dive deeper into the specific structure, propagation and adaptability of the American alt-right political movement QAnon’s underlying narrative through the lens of “Digital Storytelling”. The method employed being a holistic narrative analysis. Utilizing data collected from the image boards 4chan, 8chan and 8kun we look at a large narrative specifically centered around Donald Trump’s presidency. By gaining a more thorough understanding of the narrative techniques employed to create said narrative, this study will highlight resilient and recurring structures within the QAnon movement. Our findings show that the movement through the application of several characteristic features of digital storytelling have created a highly adaptable narrative. The cryptic nature of messaging used by the movements original author has through the instance of “decoding”, allowed a range of different interpretations to flourish. We identify three key factors connected to the success of the QAnon narrative, these being, 1: An authentic message, created through both hidden and visible feedback. 2: An elastic and resilient narrative, formed through iterative interpretations of coded messages. 3: A tight knitted group-identity, reinforced by the self-classifying as underdogs.

Uppsatsen handlar om internetanvändare på Youtube och 4chans reception av ett videoklipp med performancekonst utförd av konststudenten Natacha Stolz. Många kommentarer uttrycker en stark och ofta misogyn avsky mot verket och konstnären. Med hjälp av Jessica Sjöholm Skrubbes artikel om reception, åverkan och klotter på offentliga nakenakter samt Mary Russos teorier om den groteska kvinnokroppen analyseras kommentarer och videoremixer på verket utifrån termer av kön, kroppslighet och gruppkultur på internet.

Optimists used to suggest that the anonymity of the internet allows people to interact without prejudices about race, sex, or age. Although some websites still foster anonymous communication, their popularity pales in comparison with sites like Facebook that foreground identifying characteristics. These social network sites claim to enrich their users’ lives by cultivating connections, but they sometimes have the opposite effect. Given the widespread and growing use of social media, my research poses the following questions: Does a particular form of (dis)engagement with the world flow from the reduction of the person to a profile? Does this (dis)engagement extend beyond social media, possibly into the way that we understand the world as such? What can we conclude about the broader theoretical framework in which an analysis of social media might be couched? I answer these questions through Martin Heidegger’s work, which provides the theoretical orientation for the dissertation as a whole. Noting that history informs the way that he understands ontology (Chapter One), I argue that the social changes that are accompanying the spread of the internet suggest modifications to his characterizations of boredom (Chapter Two) and technology (Chapter Three). I then turn to three emblematic social media sites – Facebook, which renders its users connected and identifiable (Chapter Four); Reddit, which gathers its users into a pseudonymous community of common interest (Chapter Five); and 4chan, which demands that its users engage in an anonymous fashion (Chapter Six) – and analyze them using the framework developed above while drawing from them to alter that framework further. I claim that although the patterns of use apparent on these sites differ, they all express different aspects of the mood that holds sway over the internet. Social media is both the cause of, and solution to, boredom, and it is shaping a generalized mood that is coming to seem ontological in its purchase. / Graduate

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T18:12:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Bruno Luiz Cardoso Tavares Antonio.pdf: 2931769 bytes, checksum: c12f1f7878bdb9156a9577243aa400c4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-05-24 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This study aims to examine how communicational relationships are established between Anonymous collective and the mass media such as television, radio and print media. Anonymous began as a small group of internet users seeking fun in the imageboard 4chan. Later on, the group gained a more serious stance, chasing free exchange information, freedom of speech and free Internet usage. It has become a media phenomenon that resulted in a collective of cyberactivists with unclear political objectives and became popular after being recognized for: shutting down government websites, confidential information leakage and stolen data. The goal of this research is to (i) demonstrate how media builded and explored an image of a collective that is mobilized through social networks to organize concomitant protests in several parts of the world and (ii) explain how media uses Anonymous for their own ends and, in the Brazilian case, how it has appropriated Guy Fawkes mask as a symbol against corruption / O presente trabalho visa a analisar como se estabelecem as relações comunicacionais entre o Coletivo Anonymous e as mídias de massa, como a televisão, rádio e os meios impressos. O Anonymous nasceu como um pequeno grupo de usuários de internet no imageboard 4chan que buscava diversão e, posteriormente, assumiu uma imagem mais séria em busca da liberdade para a troca de informações, liberdade de expressão e livre utilização da internet. Tornou-se um fenômeno midiático resultante em um coletivo de ciberativistas com objetivos pseudo políticos, nem sempre declarados, e se popularizou após receberem os créditos de uma série de ataques virtuais que resultaram na queda de sites governamentais, vazamento de informações confidenciais de pessoas públicas e seqüestro de dados. O objetivo desta pesquisa é (i) demonstrar como a mídia construiu e explorou a imagem de um coletivo que se mobiliza através de redes sociais para organizar protestos concomitantes em diversos lugares do mundo e (ii) explicar como a mídia se utiliza do Anonymous para seus próprios fins, e no caso do Brasil, apropriando-se da máscara de Guy Fawkes como um símbolo de combate à corrupção

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Fenomenet konspirationsteorier har funnits i tusentals år. Under antiken finns historier om människor som antingen inte hört om eller inte tror på att kejsar Nero är död utan istället blir förledda av bedragare som säger att de själva är Nero, den rättmätige kejsaren. I Sverige finns dokument bevarade från trettonhundratalets digerdöden då prästerskapet i Visby skickar brev till Tyskland och proklamerar att de minsann kommit på vilka som sprider sjukdomen: konspiratoriska judar (detta utan entydigt bevis på att judar ens levde i Sverige under den här tiden). I dagens globaliserade värld sprider sig information snabbare än i antiken och kan få större konsekvenser än på medeltiden. Konspirationsteorier har potentialen att leda till katastrofala konsekvenser. Därför kommer den här uppsatsen diskutera QAnon, en teori och världssyn kopplad till allt ifrån upplopp till mord. I sin bredaste form kan konspirationsteorier definieras som obevisad teori (eller teorier) om en konspiration.  Konspirationsteorin QAnon startade 28/10 2017 på webbsidan 4chan med en anonym avsändare som erbjöd följande meddelande till forumsektionen /pol/: “HRC [Hillary Rodham Clinton] extradition already in motion effective yesterday with several countries in case of cross border run. Passport approved to be flagged effective 10/30 @ 12:01am. Expect massive riots organized in defiance and others fleeing the US to occur. US M’s [Marines] will conduct the operation while NG [National Guard] activated. Proof check: Locate a NG [National Guard] member and ask if activated for duty 10/30 across most major cities”. Hillary Clinton skulle utlämnas och arresteras var hon än landade och amerikaner kunde vänta sig stora upplopp. Men hur kommer det sig att användarna på 4chan trodde på detta, och hur konstruerade egentligen den anonyma författaren Q sitt ethos? Den här uppsatsen kommer att diskutera hur författaren eller författarna Q skapat ett ethos hos sin publik med hjälp av sin anonymitet, samt hävda att själva anonymiteten är en viktig del av konstruktionen. Vidare kommer uppsatsen att diskutera hur ett inlägg på en webbsida känd för extremism kunde växa tills de konspirationsteoretiska idéerna blev så stora att de fick majoritetsstöd inom det republikanska partiet när Kapitolium stormades, utan att ha en explicit förgrundsgestalt. Fem år senare så finns det snart 5000 så kallade Q-drops, en dokumentärserie på HBO, ett flertal böcker om QAnon och konspirationsteorin har till stor del bannlysts från sociala medier på grund av grävande journalistik som visat på radikalisering efter upploppen vid Kapitolium 6/1 2021. Uppsatsen kommer att använda sig av McCroskeys tredelade ethosteori, vid sidan av huvudmaterialet som kommer att bestå av ett antal Q-drops, för att försöka beskriva hur en anonym avsändare kan konstruera ethos hos en publik och hur olika slags bevisföring bolstrar ethoskonstruktionen.  Genom att finna och skapa en publik på 4chan och 8chan som är mottaglig för paranoid style så har konspirationsteorin kunnat växa i en tid då polariseringen mellan politiska partier växer och konspirationsteorier är en miljardindustri. Genom att vara anonym har “Q” kunnat konstruera ett ethos baserat på exakt vad hen behöver vara för stunden, ett ethos som transcenderar kön, klädsel och klassmarkörer till hundratusentals människor, världen över. Uppsatsen kommer inte att rota i avsändarens egentliga identitet mer än att beskriva det komplicerade förhållandet mellan konspirationsteorins anhängare och avsändaren (vissa av konspirationsteorins anhängare tror exempelvis att kontot idag styrs av en bedragare, men att Q finns). Fokus läggs istället på att beskriva en ethoskonstruktion som blir allt vanligare (online och anonym) och hur den samspelar med ekonomiska och politiska incitament som får politisk framgång genom att appellera till en publik som generellt sett kunnat beskrivas som mot etablissemanget.

In 1987, computer programmer and linguist Larry Wall authored the general-purpose, high-level, interpreted, dynamic Unix scripting language, Perl. Borrowing features from C and awk, Perl was originally intended as a scripting language for text-processing. However, with the rising popularity of the Internet and the advent of Tim Berners-Lee’s World Wide Web (Web), in the 1990s, Perl soon became the glue-language for the Internet, due in large part to its relationship to the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and the Common Gateway Interface (CGI). Perl was the go-to language for on the fly program writing and coding, gaining accolades from the likes of publisher Tim O’Reilly and hackers alike. Perl became a favorite language of amateur Web users, whom net artist Olia Lialina calls barbarians, or the indigenous. These users authored everything from database scripts to social spaces like chatrooms and bulletin boards. Perl, while largely ignored today, played a fundamental role in facilitating those social spaces and interactions of Web 1.0, or what I refer to as a Perl-net. Thus, Perl informed today’s more ubiquitous digital culture, referred to as Web 2.0, and the social web. This project examines Perl’s origin which is predicated on postmodern theories, such as deconstructionism and multiculturalism. Perl’s formal features are differentiated from those of others, like Java. In order to defend Perl’s status as an inherently cultural online tool, this project also analyzes many instances of cultural artifacts: script programs, chatrooms, code poetry, webpages, and net art. This cultural analysis is guided by the work of contemporary media archaeologists: Lialina and Dragan Espenschied, Erkki Huhtamo and Jussi Parikka. Lastly, the present state of digital culture is analyzed in an effort to re-consider the Perl scripting language as a relevant, critical computer language, capable of aiding in deprogramming the contemporary user.