ORCID
0009-0000-5058-3783
Abstract
Public online communication has increasingly included violence-related content that is meme-based, ironic, visually stylized, multimodal, and only partially ideological. This comprehensive literature review synthesized research on online extremism, extremist memes, toxic multimodal content, dehumanizing digital communication, nihilistic violent extremism, warning behaviors, platform affordances, and youth-facing online environments. The purpose was to clarify what the literature had established; identify where the scholarship remained fragmented; and map research domains relevant to social, behavioral, public safety, and human services scholarship. The review used a structured, comprehensive literature review strategy supported by integrative synthesis procedures. The final corpus contained 34 scholarly sources, including 32 topical sources, one ethics-oriented source, and one methodological source. The synthesis identified six recurring themes: (a) hybridized online violent communication; (b) memes, aesthetics, and multimodal violent meaning; (c) irony, humor, and ambiguity; (d) dehumanization and anti-human framing; (e) platform affordances and youth-facing digital environments; and (f) warning-behavior-adjacent signaling. The review found that existing research explained important parts of the problem but remained fragmented across studies on terrorism, criminology, communication, public health, digital platforms, and threat assessment. Five research domains were recommended for future empirical study: (a) meaning collapse, (b) anti-human or dehumanizing orientation, (c) aestheticized violent communication, (d) irony and ambiguity, and (e) warning-behavior-adjacent signaling. These domains were presented as research concepts rather than diagnostic, predictive, or surveillance tools. The review concluded with implications for researchers, practitioners, policy and platform audiences, and future empirical work.
Included in
Child Psychology Commons, Communication Technology and New Media Commons, Criminology Commons, Demography, Population, and Ecology Commons, Developmental Psychology Commons, Experimental Analysis of Behavior Commons, Human Factors Psychology Commons, Other Communication Commons, Other Political Science Commons, Other Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons, Other Sociology Commons, Policy Design, Analysis, and Evaluation Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, School Psychology Commons, Science and Technology Policy Commons, Science and Technology Studies Commons, Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance Commons, Social Influence and Political Communication Commons, Social Media Commons, Social Psychology Commons, Social Psychology and Interaction Commons, Social Welfare Commons, Speech and Rhetorical Studies Commons, Terrorism Studies Commons
