ABSTRACT
If not the audience, then how does a group become a “hate group” in digital journalism? Built on the problems of digital journalism and the nature of digital journalism reflected in prior chapters, this chapter reflects on how news organizations collaboratively worked with non-governmental organizations to undertake definition making related to “hate.” There is no universal definition of what constitutes “hate.” Largely in the USA, definitions of “hate groups” are motivated institutionally through the definition making of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League—groups most likely to send out press releases and produce documents that journalists can use for the speedy reporting reflected in Chapter 3. This chapter looks at the definitions produced by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Anti-Defamation League and the Federal Bureau of Investigation through their public documents related to hate groups. In particular, the chapter examines the fraught discussion of defining hate groups in terms of domestic terrorism; a connection the FBI has long resisted.
