UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A pioneering researcher whose work addresses online hate and the motives behind it will present a free public lecture that offers a new paradigm focusing on haters’ social interactions and rewards during a visit to Penn State in mid-March.
Joe Walther, a distinguished professor of communication at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), will present “Online Hate: A Prosocial Explanation for AntiSocial Communication,” at 6 p.m. March 19 in Walker Building on the University Park campus.
Racism, sexism, religious bigotry and anti-immigrant postings are common in social media, and they are hurtful and shocking to victims and bystanders. They’re conventionally thought of as intended to insult, degrade and harm victims, but recent research suggests there’s a different game going on — and that’s the focus of Walther’s work.
Walther suggests that digital hate is primarily for haters, not victims, to see and prompt replies. As a result, his paradigm focuses on haters’ social interactions and rewards via media affordances, with a new theory and recent studies to support it.
Walther, a faculty associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, pioneered the study of how people form impressions and relationships over the internet. He has articulated several influential theories and studies on the topic throughout his career. Walther held positions at universities in the United States, Europe and Asia before taking the Bertelsen Presidential Chair in Technology and Society at UCSB.
The annual Pockrass Memorial Lecture is named after the late Professor Robert M. Pockrass, a member of Penn State’s journalism faculty from 1948 to 1977. Pockrass, who specialized in public opinion and popular culture, served as the graduate officer and taught radio news writing for the School of Journalism, which later became the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications.