No. 113/2021

“YOU CAN’T CALCULATE IT” A conversation with communication scientist Hektor Haarkötter on the rules of online communication – and how best to respond to a shitstorm. KOSMOS: Mr Haarkötter, did shitstorms exist even before social media were invented? HEKTOR HAARKÖTTER: They do actually seem to be a feature of the digital world. But they predate Facebook, Twitter and Co.: in mailing lists, for instance, you used to get bru- tal forms of confrontation that proceeded in cascades. The cascade element is an important characteristic of shitstorms – one word gen- erates another, and the mood escalates at an incredible rate. Your book about shitstorms appeared in 2016. Has the phenomenon changed since then? Have shitstorms become more fre- quent or radical? THE DIGITAL CHANNELS LEND THEMSELVES TO COMMUNICATING SCIENCE.” „ It’s difficult to say because there isn’t even a definition of when something turns into a shit- storm – is it 50 negative comments or does it have to be nearer 500,000? What I person- ally think has changed today is that shitstorms are increasingly calculated by professional actors – actors who are out to poison com- munication from the word go. Trolls, tabloids but also populist parties use the tactic to try and generate as much attention for their topic as possible. But the amazing thing is, you can’t calculate it. Sometimes you post something that you think is controversial and you don’t get a single reaction. And another time, you write something ostensibly harmless, but it’s the very thing that gets someone’s goat. FOCUS 22 HUMBOLDT KOSMOS 113/2021