Cultivating Metanoia in Twitter Publics: Analyzing and Producing Bots of Protest in the #GamerGate Controversy

This article examines the unique rhetorical affordances of Twitter bots as a way to offer student writers the kairotic means of understanding how networked writing functions in social media public spheres. Specifically, this article discusses how to theorize and construct protest bots in the ad hoc and post hoc Twitter publics of the GamerGate controversy. In addition to kairos, we suggest that the supplementary concept of metanoia offers a highly relevant lens to understand Twitter bots' anonymity and persistence in relationship to the ways in which publics spheres adapt and change over time.