INTRODUCTION

Reddit is a social networking website where users debate and share content based on a
variety of topics. It has over 430 million active users as of 2021. The widely-known social media
platform is seen as a massive online community where users can post text, images, videos and
links to other websites, and can create discussions among other users through comments and
upvotes or downvotes. It’s organized into sub-communities, known as “subreddits,” with over
130,000 active subreddits since September 2021. Subreddits are marked by “/r”, in which there
are subreddits that are made for specific communities. For instance, students who are
interested in computer science can join subreddits such as r/programming or
r/cscareerquestions to learn more about the topic. Users can join subreddits that allow them to
connect with like-minded individuals globally and meet those who share their goals and values
to build friendships.
The online gaming community has existed for quite awhile now, but has become even
more popular in recent years. The majority of online gamers are between the ages of 18 and 30,
with the gender split being fairly even. Online gaming allows players to connect and compete
with others internationally, with no limits on geographical location. Mobile devices, consoles, and
PCs are the most notable platforms of online gaming. Although online gaming communities can
be a source of friendship and social support, it also can be plagued by toxic behavior, such as
trash-talking and cyberbullying. (include some info abt previous research (secondary sources)
on reddit; i realized i haven’t done any previous research about reddit in general through ebsco
so i will include that in my final draft)

The research I have conducted targets trash-talking within the online gaming community.
Now there really isn’t a specific subreddit that tackles this subject, however there are multiple
posts in different subreddits that do talk about it. Some of these subreddits include
r/unpopularopinion, r/truegaming, and r/gaming. All three of these subreddits have A) a shared
interest and B) demonstrate Henry Jenkins’ definition of participatory culture (Jenkins, 2006.) In
r/unpopularopinion, there are 3.5 million active users talking about opinions they find to be
unpopular, which really isn’t related to my topic, but it does include it in some discussion posts.
Along with this subreddit, r/truegaming has 1.4 million Redditors and r/gaming has 36 million
users. Debate posts within these Reddits attracted a large community response where users
discussed their opinions about trash talking in video games and gave their stories on it. My

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research aims to break down communication within these subreddits while being compared to
past analysis.
Some research questions proposed by this study include:
1. How does trash talking form as a form of communication within the online gaming
community?
2. How do these subreddits fall under Henry Jenkins’ definition of participatory
culture?
3. How do the communities of these subreddits use discussion in the comments to
bring new ideas and further communication to posts?

METHODOLOGY
To analyze the communication within these three subreddits, I spent some time looking
for Reddit posts that were targeting what I wanted to discuss. This was a quick process as I was
able to find multiple Reddit posts that related to trash talking within video games and the online
gaming community. It also gave me access to a wide variety of content to use. In order to
illustrate these subreddits as participatory culture, my research shows posts that demonstrated
active community discussions that had numerous comments to analyze. All of the posts are
text-based communication, so I did not have any issues for the case if there were any
photo/video based posts. These posts allowed me to analyze a variety of content and break
down the communication that keeps these discussions and subreddits active throughout the
years.
(Second paragraph should tie the 1st paragraph to a secondary source which can help
clear questions and create verification.)

RESULTS
To answer the first research question, I had to establish how trash talking can be seen as
a form of communication. To accomplish this, I immediately found a post that talked about the
“best trash talk one-liners.” This Reddit post was made by the user u/TotalRogue and was
posted 12 years ago to the subreddit /AskReddit. Most of the comments in here are NSFW,
using profane language. However, this can be seen as a form of communication as profane
language is used widely around most games. Trash talking within competitive sports is
understood to be used as “verbal insults toward another player, which can include racist,

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homophobic, and sexist language” (Ortiz, 2019.) Within this one Reddit post, there are a
combined total of 86 words that relate to profanity, homophobic, racist, and sexist language.
While it was a necessity to establish trash talking as a form of communication, even if it
means to use vulgar language, this can lead to the second idea of how it can be defined as
Jenkins’ definition of participatory culture. The bulk of the research comes straight from the
Reddit posts in numerous subreddits. Another Reddit post under the subreddit
r/unpopularopinion by the Reddit user u/ZeusTheAngolian was made to discuss everyone’s
opinions about trash talking. This Reddit post has received 710 upvotes, along with 379
comments in just 2 years. (will add data for final draft bc i have not confirmed the exact
numbers) About (blank) of these had first-hand responses, in which (blank) had more than 5
second-hand responses (responses to responses) to it.

Comments from u/ZeusTheAngolian’s “Trash talking in video games is not ‘part of the fun’
and is just unnecessary toxic behavior

Agree

Disagr
ee

(table is a rough idea of how I want to organize the data I collect)

ANALYSIS
Before indulging into how these subreddits show a clear demonstration of participatory
culture, a clear definition of what this means is given by author Henry Jenkins:
“1. With relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement
2. With strong support for creating and sharing one's creations with others
3. With some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is
passed along to novices
4. Where members believe that their contributions matter
5. Where members feel some degree of social connection with one another (at the least they
care what other people think about what they have created).” (Jenkins, 2006).
Reddit is a social networking website that is free to join and users can sign up pretty
easily. It consists of hundreds of thousands of sections, known as subreddits, in which users

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who are interested within a certain topic can join and create conversations with others who
share similar ideas and goals. The subreddits I will be focusing on are r/unpopularopinion,
r/truegaming, and r/gaming. While these three subreddits are not completely different, they do
share some important discussions about toxic behavior and trash talking within the online
gaming community.
The online gaming community comes together when trash-talking exists. For instance,
as previously mentioned, within the reddit r/AskReddit a lot of users give their “best one-liners”
for trash talking. Within this reddit post, there is a sense of unity, as this is what this specific
reddit post thrives on. It also thrives on being very toxic, in which it includes very vulgar, sexist,
homophobic, and racist language. (include censored screenshots of similar looking reddit posts
under the thread)

CONCLUSION
Reddit is seen to be a pioneer in the social networking world, as it stands to be one of
the most used social media websites. However, unlike other social media platforms such as
Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, Reddit’s primary focus is not to share personal information
and chat with friends, but to basically say whatever you want unfiltered. As far as your
imagination can go, there is probably a subreddit that exists. The research value that Reddit has
has been previously established throughout the entirety of this paper, but this is only a way that
Reddit can be seen as. You can write, upload videos and pictures, and use links to express your
thoughts. The voting system on reddit allows other users to agree or disagree with your beliefs
and can even respond to it, creating a discussion post among other users. Subreddits such as
r/unpopularopinion, r/truegaming, and r/gaming are great examples of how possibilities can be
endless in Reddit and how they can serve as a community for people of all ages internationally.
Specific Reddit posts from all of these subreddits have a common theme: unity. I aimed
for just looking at text-based Reddit posts since that would be more helpful in my research and
studies. The subreddits are all welcoming and supportive, in which users can discuss anything
they want. However, these reddit posts are all based on trash talking within the online gaming
community. People are able to share their stories and thoughts, which creates a discussion
post, causing several social connections in unimaginable ways. Discussion posts are there to
create organization within a subreddit, and also give a space for people to talk about that
specific discussion within that post.

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