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''Reading the Comments: Likers, Haters, and Manipulators at the Bottom of the Web'' is a 2015 non-fiction book by
The book has eight chapters and gives an overview of comments on the Internet. Reagle covers the concept of Internet anonymity and references Plato's
Northeastern University
Northeastern University (NU or NEU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded by the Boston Young Men's Christian Association in 1898 as an all-male instit ...
professor Joseph M. Reagle Jr. The book was first published on April 24, 2015 through MIT Press
The MIT Press is the university press of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The MIT Press publishes a number of academic journals and has been a pioneer in the Open Ac ...
and deals with the subject of Internet comments in locations like YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
, Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...
, and forums.
Synopsis
The book has eight chapters and gives an overview of comments on the Internet. Reagle covers the concept of Internet anonymity and references Plato's Ring of Gyges
The Ring of Gyges (, ''Gúgou Daktúlios'', ) is a hypothetical magic ring mentioned by the philosopher Plato in Book 2 of his ''Republic'' (2:359a–2:360d). It grants its owner the power to become invisible at will. Using the ring as an exam ...
story, comparing the ring's power of invisibility to the ability to remain seemingly anonymous on the Internet. Topics covered in the book include the manipulation of online reviews in locations like Yelp
Yelp Inc. is an American company that develops the Yelp.com website and the Yelp mobile app, which publishes crowd-sourced reviews about businesses. It also operates Yelp Guest Manager, a table reservation service. It is headquartered in S ...
, trolling
In slang, a troll is a person who posts deliberately offensive or provocative messages online (such as in social media, a newsgroup, a internet forum, forum, a chat room, an Multiplayer video game, online video game) or who performs similar be ...
, and online threats of rape and violence.
Reception
Critical reception for ''Reading the Comments'' has been mixed. Much of the book's criticism centered on what the critics felt was a lack of depth and ''The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...
'' commented that this gave the book a "frustrating sense of missed opportunity, of mere comprehensiveness", particularly when covering the subjects of Donglegate and Anita Sarkeesian
Anita Sarkeesian ( ; born 1983) is a Canadian-American feminist media critic. She is the founder of ''#Feminist Frequency, Feminist Frequency'', a website that hosts videos and commentary analyzing portrayals of women in popular culture. Her v ...
's Tropes vs. Women in Video Games. ''The Spectator
''The Spectator'' is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. ''The Spectator'' is politically conservative, and its principal subject a ...
'' gave an overall favorable opinion of ''Reading the Comments'', praising Reagle for his observation skills.
References
External links
* 2015 non-fiction books Books about the Internet MIT Press books {{internet-book-stub