Author ORCID Identifier
https://orcid.org/0009-0003-2265-3627
Date Available
5-15-2025
Year of Publication
2025
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
College
Communication and Information
Department/School/Program
Communication
Faculty
Dr. Kyra Hunting
Faculty
Dr. Yvonne Eadon
Faculty
Dr. Spencer Greenhalgh
Abstract
My thesis addresses the ever-evolving landscape of Gamergate 2.0. Once a reactionary misogynistic harassment movement dedicated to attacking women in video games, the new iteration of Gamergate has evolved into an entirely new community. In its new iteration, Gamergate is even less ostensibly concerned with video games and more with reactionary content, mixing together nerd media, general pop culture, and right-wing politics. To study this community, I approach the Gamergate 2.0 community as an anti-fandom and reactionary affinity space. I argue that GamerGate 2.0 exists as its own powerful reactionary community that creates a worldview consisting of the desired destruction of ideological enemies that perpetrates itself through the use of memes, narratives and myth-making.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2025.205
Recommended Citation
McCann, Ashley C., "Player 2 Has Entered the Culture War: Discourse, Ideology, and Narrative in GamerGate 2.0" (2025). Theses and Dissertations--Communication. 136.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/comm_etds/136
