Gaming Democracy : How Silicon Valley Leveled up the Far Right / Adrienne L. Massanari.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Massanari, Adrienne Lynne, author.

Series:

The MIT Press Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Video games--Authorship.

Video games.

Video games--Social aspects.

Politics in social media--United States.

Politics in social media.

Right-wing extremists--United States.

Right-wing extremists.

Conservatism--United States.

Conservatism.

Radicalism--United States.

Radicalism.

White nationalism--United States.

White nationalism.

White supremacy movements--United States.

White supremacy movements.

Antisemitism--United States.

Antisemitism.

Islamophobia--United States.

Islamophobia.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (261 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2024]

Summary:

How play and gaming culture have mainstreamed far right ideology through social media platforms. From #Gamergate to the ongoing Big Lie, the far right has gone mainstream. In "Gaming Democracy," Adrienne Massanari tracks the flames of toxicity found in the far right and "alt right" movements as they increasingly take up oxygen in American and global society. In this pathbreaking contribution to the fields of internet studies, game studies, and gender studies, Massanari argues that Silicon Valley's emphasis on meritocracy and free speech absolutism have driven this right-ward slide. These ideologies have been coded into social media spaces that implicitly silence marginalized communities and subject them to rampant abuse by groups that have learned to "game" the ecology of platforms, algorithms, and attention economies. While populist movements are not new, phenomena such as QAnon, parental rights activism, and COVID denialism are uniquely "of the internet" with supporters demonstrating both technical acumen and an ability to use memes and play as a way of both building community and fomenting dissent. Massanari explores the ways that the far right uses memetic humor and geek masculinity as a tool to create both a sense of community within these leaderless groups and to obfuscate their intentions. Using the lens of play and game studies as well as the concept of "metagaming," Gaming Democracy is a novel contribution to our understanding of online platforms and far right political activism.

Contents:

The game according to Silicon Valley

From #Gamergate to the "Alt-Right"

Geek masculinity and the cult(ure) of tech

Reddit's love affair with r/the_Donald

Metagaming democracy.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780262380331

0262380331

9780262380324

0262380323

OCLC:

1430417176