LONE ACTOR IN THE HYPERTEXT: DIGITAL COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY & ITS INFLUENCE ON THE IDEOLOGICAL COMMITMENTS AND IDENTITY CLAIMS OF VIOLENT LONE ACTORS

This dissertation explores interactions between media and communication technologies and the ideological commitments and identity claims of violent lone actors. Terrorist incidents involving lone actors are more prevalent in the 21st Century than at any point in modern history, surpassing 20th Century rates both proportionally and in sheer numbers. Prevention and interdiction efforts depend on expanding our understanding of this type of political violence. Existing studies of lone actor violence generally fall into one of two categories. On one hand, there are descriptive works identifying patterns and offering taxonomies of radicalization and violence. Here, the role of technology remains undertheorized. By contrast, a second type of study argues against the validity of the category itself, arguing that lone actors are socially and discursively embedded in political milieus, even if this only amounts to consuming media. This second type of study recognizes the techno-communicative dimension of lone actor violence, but collapses it with material support for terrorism. Both approaches share a common gap: neither adequately examines the role of media and communication technologies on their own terms. This dissertation aims to address that gap. This dissertation examines two illustrative case studies—that of Anders Breivik and that of Brenton Tarrant—to center media and communication technology in the analysis of lone actor radicalization and violence. Using critical STS and UX auditing methods, it details the technological affordances of platforms and technologies used by each killer. Through the lenses of medium theory, mediatization theory, symbolic interactionism, and posthumanist thought, this dissertation analyzes the influence that media and communication technologies might exert on lone actors’ ideological commitments and identity claims. It suggests that immersion in online communications milieus fosters idiosyncratic modes of belief and belonging afforded by specific technologies, platforms, and the cultures that inhabit them. This study concludes with an attempt to synthesize the divergent literature of lone actors. This synthesis argues for a revised understanding of the boundaries between individual and collective in the age of digital media. Finally, it proposes how such a more nuanced understanding might be practically applied to the study and legal pursuit of violent lone actors.