Homing in on Hate: Editors' Introduction

The ever-encroaching discourse of online hate has, to date, only been partially mapped, and available studies have mostly focused on forms of misogynous attacks in the male-dominated online tech and gamer communities or against feminist activists (Potts 2015; Hardaker and McGlashan 2016). Additionally, there seems to be a tendency to forget that ongoing, low-level hate speech is far more common than the dramatically violent hate crimes that capture public imagination. Whether by investigating the ripple effect triggered by a single controversial tweet, the manipulation of gender ideologies in ethnic radio discourse, or the re-semiotization of the ‘city’ as a nurturing space for Jihadist hate narratives, this book intends to address, from a wide and comprehensive multimodal perspective, the prevailing gaps in research literature and the dire need to contend with rampant vitriolic discourses today.