Joseph Reagle

Joseph Reagle in the Press

How “Divorce him!” became the internet’s de facto relationship advice

Messy and mean-spirited internet comments sections are nothing new, of course: Joseph Reagle, an associate professor of communications at Northeastern University and author of Reading the Comments: Likers, Haters, and Manipulators at the Bottom of the Web, uses the metaphor of the “rotten barrel.”

Mashable

Online reviews shaped the internet as we know it. Now they might be in danger.

Vetting products online was a genuine concern for consumers as e-commerce picked up steam, according to Dr. Joseph Reagle, a Northeastern University communication studies professor who studied online reviews in past work about online comment sections. “Back in the ’90s, most of the people selling things [online] were certain niche merchants, so even Amazon was a bookseller,” he explains.

Slate

Jimmy Wales Is Auctioning the “Birth of Wikipedia” as an NFT

Joseph Reagle, a professor at Northeastern University and Wikipedia historian, used this data to reconstruct the first 10,000 contributions to Wikipedia.

Ars Technica

H.G. Wells’ “World Brain” is now here—what have we learned since?

The collection also includes a foreword by the science fiction writer Bruce Sterling and an introduction by Joseph Reagle, an associate professor of communication studies at Northeastern who writes and teaches about popular culture , digital communication, and online communities.

The National

Online bullying: what can Instagram teach us about being abusive on the Internet?

“Over the years, there have been lots of little experiments with trying to slow the pace of conversation,” says Joseph Reagle, associate professor of communication studies at Northeastern University in Boston in the US.

Asia Times

Hacking your way to love

Joseph Reagle is an associate professor of Communication Studies at Northeastern University.

FiveThirtyEight

We Asked 8,500 Internet Commenters Why They Do What They Do

Comments often serve as identity badges, said Joseph Reagle, the author of “Reading the Comments: Likers, Haters, and Manipulators at the Bottom of the Web” and a professor of communication studies at Northeastern University. “You see this particularly on social media,” he told me. The comment is meant to tell the world, “This is who […]

Why do so few women edit Wikipedia?

When Joseph Reagle, an assistant professor at Northeastern University and author of Good Faith Collaboration: The Culture of Wikipedia, and his colleague compared biographies from the English-language Wikipedia and the online Encyclopaedia Britannica, they found that Wikipedia dominates Britannica in biographical coverage (largely due to the fact that it’s just much bigger), but more so […]

Want to save the comments from trolls? Do it yourself

Having to jump through hoops also initially worried Joseph Reagle, an assistant professor of communications studies at Northeastern University and author of the book Reading the Comments. Reagle says he was initially skeptical of Civil’s ideas. But he says that after using it and talking to the founders, he’s excited about the experiment. And he […]

The covert world of people trying to edit Wikipedia—for pay

Joseph Reagle, a professor of communication studies at Northeastern University and the author of Good Faith Collaboration: The Culture of Wikipedia, tends to agree with Maher’s assessment. “If we were to enumerate the list of the things that would cause people to be skeptical of the quality of Wikipedia … I suspect paid contribution would […]

A screen grab of the Coldplay "kiss-cam" couple at the concert.

Two reasons why the Coldplay ‘kiss-cam’ moment turned into a viral sensation

Joseph Reagle, an associate professor of communication studies, dissects the viral Coldplay concert moment.

A group of fans sitting together in mourning for the death of Liam Payne.

Liam Payne’s death shakes One Direction community. Expert explains parasocial relationships

The online community formed around One Direction is partially why people are feeling grief over the sudden loss of the singer.

Disney canceling Star Wars show ‘The Acolyte’ sets a dangerous precedent and doesn’t bode well for the future of Star Wars and Hollywood, expert says

After getting bashed by the most toxic parts of the Star Wars fandom, Disney proved those fans are not the outlier – they're in control.

In his new book Hacking Life, Northeastern University professor Joseph Reagle examines the strengths and disadvantages of life hacks

Life hacks can help us simplify our lives, stay organized, and maximize our diet, finances, sleep, and work. But Northeastern professor Joseph Reagle says that people who try to hack their lives at every turn risk going too far in an effort to master their chaotic schedules.

A case for reading—and weeding—the comments on social media platforms like Facebook

Earlier this month, broadcaster and noted conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was banned from several social media platforms. Joseph Reagle, a Northeastern associate professor who studies online culture, sees this as a watershed moment: Now, social platforms are defining the type of interactions they want to foster.

3Qs: How to tame the Twitter haters

A score of Twitter users were banned by the social media service last week for hurling a spate of vile remarks at Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones. To find out how online anonymity affects the way people act toward each other and what social media sites like Twitter could do to curb targeted attacks, we turned to Northeastern assistant professor Joseph Reagle, an expert on internet trolling.

3Qs: In ‘free culture’ online, where are the women?

Joseph Reagle, an assistant professor of communication studies, explains why women make up a very small percentage of “open computing” fields like Wikipedia, Linux, and Apache.

3Qs: The Wikipedia effect on presidential politics

Joseph Reagle, an assistant professor of communication studies, considers the effect of the collaborative online encyclopedia on political campaigns.

Cultural connections, a click away

Joseph Reagle, new assistant professor of communication studies, is researching the formation of online communities and the cultural aspects of new media

Schools in India don’t teach soft skills. This entrepreneur does

Are energy drinks the new cigarettes? England thinks so

Looking for an environmentally friendly drinking straw? The answer may surprise you

China’s ‘super embassy’ proposal in London sparks spying fears