1.
News and Trolls: Olympic Games
Coverage in the Twenty-First Century.
Tama Leaver / @tamaleaver 18 October 2012
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2.
Overview
1. The Olympic contradiction.
2. Channel 9 Olympics Coverage sucks.
3. Trolling (for change)?
Internet Research 13, Salford. 18 October 2012
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3.
[1] The Olympic contradiction.
Internet Research 13, Salford. 18 October 2012
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4.
The Olympic Pie: National Slices …
 NBC (US): time-delayed coverage of key events until
primetime. Online available, but only to specific cable
subscribers.
 Australian coverage: Channel 9 free-to-air (single
channel); Foxtel (subscription + iPad app), 8 channels.
 Only 30% Australian households have subscription TV.
 Olympics FREE via YouTube in 100+ countries where the
IOC was unable to sell national broadcast rights
Internet Research 13, Salford. 18 October 2012
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5.
IOC YouTube Channel …
Internet Research 13, Salford. 18 October 2012
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6.
#NBCfail
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7.
Internet Research 13, Salford. 18 October 2012
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8.
@NBCDelayed
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9.
@NBCDelayed
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10.
Source: https://plus.google.com/112794044897464667374/posts/FwDEPGrE28J
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11.
Internet Research 13, Salford. 18 October 2012
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12.
[2] “Channel 9 Olympics Coverage sucks”
http://www.facebook.com/ch9fail
Internet Research 13, Salford. 18 October 2012
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13.
Internet Research 13, Salford. 18 October 2012
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14.
Recognisable (Trolling?) Memes …
Internet Research 13, Salford. 18 October 2012
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15.
Karl Stefanovic …
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16.
[3] Is this “trolling”?
 Australian media currently in a
huge moral panic about ‘trolling’
 ‘Trolling’ seems to mean any
online abuse of any sort in media
uses.
 Is something like the Channel 9
page a trolling response?
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17.
Trolling (usually) understood …
 Deliberate baiting/provocation online to provoke an intense
emotional response.
 Usually trolling done using anonymous/fake profiles.
 Memes strongly associated with trolling (4chan as
probable origin of LolCats, trollface, etc.).
 Trolling/media symbiotic circuit: “Trolls need the media to
become hysterical, and the media needed trolls to
terrorize; each side benefit[s] from the overreaction of the
other.” (Phillips, 2011).
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18.
“Channel 9 Olympics Coverage sucks” as
mainstreamed trolling?
 Used memes and commentary to
attract mainstream media
commentary (minimal success;
more focus on Twitter).
 Group had practical not disruptive
aims (mostly): better coverage. NB:
praise of ABC paralympic coverage.
 Memes depleted? Neither radical
nor disruptive but banal social
commentary?
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19.
Memes & Image Macros …
 “An internet meme is a piece of culture, typically a joke,
which gains influence through online transmission. While
not all internet memes are jokes. … what makes Internet
memes unique [is] the speed of their transmission and
fidelity of their form.” (Davison, 2012, p. 122)
 “An image macro is a set of stylistic rules for adding text to
images. Some image macros involve adding the same text
to various images, and others involve adding difference
text to a common image.” (Davison, 2012, p. 127)
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20.
Image Macro Commentary?
 Chuck Tryon calls the 2012 US
elections the ‘image macro election’
due to widespread use of image
macro memes (Tryon 2012).
 NBCfail and the Channel 9 sucks
pages more like image macro politics:
specific commentary with practical
(often banal) aims for change.
 This is NOT trolling which is
disruption for disruption’s sake.
Internet Research 13, Salford. 18 October 2012
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21.
Olympic ‘brand’ too big to challenge?
 Monopoly coverage: Channel 9 still had stellar ratings, and
Foxtel gained viewers and praise for their offering (often
Foxtel subscribers used the FB group to goad free-to-air
viewers into subscribing.) More like a Foxtel ad!
 Little mainstream coverage made almost no difference (or
perceived future plans) to Nine’s coverage strategy.
 NBC similarly did incredibly well, even with delayed
broadcast times!
 Routing around: more people learnt about VPNs, but still
didn’t really ‘damage’ mainstream broadcasts.
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22.
References
 Davison, P. (2012). The Language of Internet Memes. In M. Mandiberg (Ed.),
The Social Media Reader (pp. 120–134). New York: NYU Press.
 Phillips, W. (2011). LOLing at tragedy: Facebook trolls, memorial pages and
resistance to grief online. First Monday, 16(12). Retrieved from
http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3168/3115
 Phillips, W. (2012). The House That Fox Built: Anonymous, Spectacle, and
Cycles of Amplification. Television & New Media.
doi:10.1177/1527476412452799
 Tryon, C. (2012, October 17). “Binders Full of Women:” 2012 and the Image
Macro Election. The Chutry Experiment. Retrieved from
http://www.chutry.wordherders.net/wp/?p=3498
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23.
Questions, Criticism, Comments?
Or find me later …
www.tamaleaver.net
@tamaleaver
t.leaver@curtin.edu.au
Internet Research 13, Salford. 18 October 2012
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