Researching Hate: Negotiating the Digital as Field Site in the Study of Extremist Cultures and Propaganda Online

Research in digital spaces, particularly the study of violent actors and organizations, poses ethical, methodological, and emotional concerns. These concerns are particularly acute for qualitative study given that digital spaces as field sites can often blur the lines between participant-based and text-based research. When conducting qualitative digital research, ethical concerns include questions such as whether online textual analysis is or is not a form of participant observation. Methodological concerns include defining what constitutes a textual unit of analysis across online communities and on different social media platforms. Emotional concerns are twofold, first they often include the problematics of working with “difficult” data as researchers must address repeated, prolonged exposure to hate speech and violent content. Second, the trend of disseminating research findings on social media poses mental and emotional concerns given the high potential for online harassment, doxxing, and attacks from online trolls. This chapter contributes to this larger discussion through an exploration of the author’s experience negotiating digital space as her “field site” for text-based, qualitative study of far-right and male supremacist extremist digital propaganda. Ultimately, the author argues that reflexive research design is necessary to address potential problems, clarify ethical reasoning, and adapt methodological frameworks for online study.