How trolls flourish in tragedies captured by media
In a news article of a Bronx-Lebanon Hospital shooting, Dr. Henry Bello is noted for shooting seven people (one woman killed, six injured) before killing himself. It was said that he brought an AR 15-type rifle to the hospital underneath a white lab coat (CBS New York). The cause for this action was allegations of sexual assault committed by Bello in 2015, forcing him to resign.
Looking at the comments section of the news article, most posts were directed towards guns and laws that NYC had regarding the topic. “As a direct consequence of commodity fetishism, all the consumer can see is the product itself, not how the product was made or by whom or to what effect” (Phillips 2016 30). The case of fetish used here would be the gun that Bello brought. Below shows an example of how individuals ignore the emotional connection to the story, only to post ‘gun’ related jokes.
“The play frame is established when participants indicate through tone of voice or body language that certain behaviors are to be taken as playful — not real (Phillips 2016 33). Within this article, I saw two potential examples for masked trolling, both showing sarcasm (playful tone):
As for generative trolling, Phillips notes the experience of Jessi Slaughter and her father stepping in to defend her from trolls. Here, the trolls took delight when her father tried to stop the harassment from occurring, resulting in a feeling of accomplishment and endless laughter for ‘us’ (troll audience) and not for ‘them’ (the family attached to the story). Going back to the news article comment section, “Snailmailtrucker” posts the following:
I view this comment in a similar manner as how Slaughter’s father mentioned “done goofed” and “backtraced.” While the general approach for trolls is to gain laughter, jokes can also be used to express ideas and opinions imposed by those involved. In all sense, the emotional attachment to the story became invisible once those in the article mentioned guns. None of the comments following the article showed sympathy for those injured or for any other connections to the tragedy. As I see it, anyone has the ability to troll — it comes down to one’s morals to make that decision.
