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Gangstalking refers to a novel persecutory belief system wherein sufferers believe that they are being followed, watched, and harassed by a vast network of people in their community who have been recruited as complicit perpetrators. They are frequently diagnosed as mentally ill, although they reject this formulation. Those affected by this belief system self-identify as targeted individuals (TIs). They seek to prove the veracity of their persecution and dispute the notion that they are mentally ill by posting videos online that purport to provide evidence of their claims.
The objective of the study was to characterize the multimodal social semiotic practices used in gangstalking evidence videos.
We assembled a group of 50 evidence videos posted on YouTube by self-identified TIs and performed a multimodal social semiotic discourse analysis using a grounded theory approach to data analysis.
TIs accomplished several social and interpersonal tasks in the videos. They constructed their own identity as subjects of persecution and refuted the notion that they suffered from mental illness. They also cultivated positive ambient affiliation with viewers of the videos but manifested hostility toward people who appeared in the videos. They made extensive use of multimodal deixis to generate salience and construe the gangstalking belief system. The act of filming itself was a source of conflict and served as a self-fulfilling prophecy; filming was undertaken to neutrally record hostility directed toward video bloggers (vloggers). However, the act of filming precipitated the very behaviors that they set out to document. Finally, the act of filming was also regarded as an act of resistance and empowerment by vloggers.
These data provide insight into a novel persecutory belief system. Interpersonal concerns are important for people affected, and they construe others as either sympathetic or hostile. They create positive ambient affiliation with viewers. We found that vloggers use multimodal deixis to illustrate the salience of the belief system. The videos highlighted the Derridean concept of différance, wherein the meaning of polysemous signifiers is deferred without definitive resolution. This may be important in communicating with people and patients with persecutory belief systems. Clinicians may consider stepping away from the traditional true/false dichotomy endorsed by psychiatric classification systems and focus on the ambiguity in semiotic systems generally and in persecutory belief systems specifically.
Gangstalking refers to a persecutory belief system wherein those affected believe they are being followed, watched, and harassed by many people in their community who have been recruited into a network of complicit perpetrators [
Those affected gather in online communities to support each other and co-construct, develop, and contest the gangstalking belief system. The community members use a specialized lexicon to describe their experiences and to signal membership in the community of those affected. For example, the term “gangstalking” is used to describe the system of persecution, a “targeted individual (TI)” denotes the subject of the harassment, while those who participate in the intimidation are known as “perpetrators” or “perps” [
People affected by gangstalking report that the experience is extremely distressing. The campaign of harassment is frequently experienced as the accumulation of numerous otherwise innocuous acts, such as people clearing their throat, muttering under their breath, or giving lingering glances as they pass on the street. Because each of these acts may individually be passed off as unremarkable and mundane, TIs find it difficult to prove the existence of the harassment. When they come to clinical attention, they are frequently diagnosed with psychiatric illness and their belief systems are labeled as persecutory delusions [
Our previous work found that concerns about being believed and procuring and presenting proof of their systematic victimization are prime concerns of TIs in online fora [
Gangstalking evidence video title screen.
Previous studies have examined linguistic data in online communities regarding mental health concerns, including depression and anorexia [
Previous studies have examined Google search activity in early psychosis [
Recent research on computer-mediated communication by people with psychiatric illness.
Study | Year | Population | Finding |
Kirschenbaum et al [ |
2020 | Google search history prior to first admission for psychosis | People searched for information about symptoms prior to admission. |
Birnbaum et al [ |
2020 | Search history prior to diagnosis of psychiatric illness | Differences in search history were identified between healthy volunteers and people diagnosed with psychiatric illness. |
Westermann et al [ |
2020 | Internet-based intervention for people with psychosis | Psychotic symptom severity decreased in the internet-based intervention. |
Barbetio et al [ |
2020 | Systematic review of online interventions for families of patients with severe mental disorders | Perceived stress decreased in families. |
Valentine et al [ |
2020 | People’s experience of a social media–based intervention for first-episode psychosis | The intervention fostered connection and understanding. |
Jakubowska et al [ |
2019 | Systematic review of online social networking use among people with psychosis | People with psychosis appear to use online social networking frequently. |
The objective of this study is to characterize the multimodal semiotic practices used in gangstalking evidence videos. We examine how these resources are deployed in order to construct the discourse of gangstalking, as well as how they are used to accomplish interpersonal tasks. To do this, we use a multimodal social semiotic theoretical framework to identify the semiotic resources used by TIs to construct and develop the gangstalking belief system in these evidence videos. In keeping with this framework, we identify social and interpersonal tasks accomplished by TIs in the videos, including constructing their own identity, creating distance with some groups, and fostering closeness and intimacy with other ones.
This analysis begins by describing and defining the genre of gangstalking evidence videos. We then describe how TIs use deictic strategies to create salience in the videos. First, we describe linguistic practices, and then we move on to visual strategies, including the gaze of the camera, intertitles, and text and image overlay. Next, we describe several interpersonal dynamics at work in the videos.
For this study, we assembled a corpus of videos posted on YouTube by self-identified TIs. For this, we used the YouTube Application Programming Interface (API) to search for videos. We used Python 3.0 to access the API and search the snippet object of videos. We searched for videos that contained the terms “gang stalking” or “gangstalking” AND “caught on video” or “caught on tape” or “proof” or “evidence” in the video title, description, or category. We sorted the search results by relevance using the YouTube API. We manually reviewed the search results to identify videos posted as proof or evidence of the gangstalking phenomenon. To be included in the analysis, a video had to be posted by a self-identified TI and purport to depict gangstalking activity. We identified other types of videos concerning gangstalking that were not germane to the analysis. These included first-person descriptive accounts of gangstalking, slideshow-type informational content about gangstalking, excerpts of news stories about gangstalking, original musical performances about gangstalking, and others. These videos were excluded from our analysis. We assembled a corpus of 50 videos meeting our inclusion criteria and achieved consensus by the authors regarding the suitability of the videos for inclusion.
We then conducted a multimodal discourse analysis to identify the social semiotic resources mobilized by content creators posting YouTube videos presented as evidence of the gangstalking phenomenon.
To do this, we imported the videos into the NVivo software package (QSR International) [
We coded the videos and transcripts for paralinguistic and multimodal features of the videos, such as gestures, intertitles, text and image overlay, camera angles, and visual effects such as close-ups, time lapse, and slow motion. We considered linguistic and paralinguistic resources as well as the technologically mediated visual frame [
All the data used for the analysis were posted in a public forum available to any internet user. Our analysis constitutes what Eysenbach and Till refer to as passive analysis [
The institutional research ethics board at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health reviewed the proposed study design and opined that it did not require formal approval.
Gangstalking evidence videos can be considered a subgenre of a video blog (vlog). A genre is a conventionalized form associated with a conventionalized purpose or occasion and is characterized by a schematic structure [
As mentioned before, each video can be viewed as having three functional components (introduction, evidence, and coda), two of which are optional and one of which is essential to this genre.
During the optional introductory component of the video, the TI addresses the viewer directly and orients them to the purpose and content of the video. As described later, TIs also use this section of the video to establish positive ambient affiliation with the viewer. Ambient affiliation is a concept proposed by Zappavigna [
This is what a targeted individual experiences all day long.
All right, everyone. Looks like gangstalking is at hand. You guys wanted to see some video. Well. It's about to happen.
This is the essential functional component of the video that presents the first-hand evidence of gangstalking. Much of the video is displayed in real time. However, two main temporal techniques are used to de-emphasize portions of the video deemed less significant or to highlight salient parts. Specifically, TIs use time lapse in parts that are deemed less important, while slow motion is used to mark particular moments in the video as important. We discuss these in more detail later.
During this optional component, the TI once again directly addresses the viewer, summarizes the contents of the video, and re-establishes affiliation with the viewer.
So there you go. There is a full-blown, orchestrated, uh, you know, I call it street theater–planned event, whatever. There it is broken down. All right, guys. Catch ya later. Bye.
In part, this generic structure derives its meaning from paradigmatic associations that the viewer establishes between the content of the video and other culturally available videos [
A frequent and recurrent theme in the videos is that evidence of the gangstalking behaviors is obvious and self-evident; the actions of the people captured in the evidence videos are presented as incontrovertible evidence that they are gangstalkers. However, video creators also communicate that to pick up on the relevant cues, an observer must be oriented or initiated as to what cues to look for and be inducted into the group that is able to detect relevant signs. To bridge the gap between seemingly benign actions of people filmed by TIs and the gangstalking conspiracy, TIs use features of multimodal deixis to draw attention to salient features of the videos.
Deixis refers to linguistic features that encode information about the personal, spatial, and temporal situation in which they are used [
Most of the videos used some form of voice-over narration to describe their contents, put the depicted events in context, and create salience. This practice exemplifies discourse simultaneously being constructed by and constructing social reality; creators use deixis to draw attention to features and events that they observe and perceive as salient and, in so doing, construct the salience of these features for their viewers. In one video, a narrator claims:
There's a Honda Odyssey that always be following me, so.
The creator uses the deictic determiner
I see the neighbor who does not, uh, light up the front of his driveway with a security light. However, what he does do is he lights up the driveway of this house, which is 50 to 60 feet away. Now that’s called targeting. That’s called harassment.
In this example, the creator uses the deictic
Look at this guy. He is intentionally blocking me from moving.
The first sentence of this example serves to index the salient portion of the video. The second sentence then provides the connotative salience assigning malicious intent to the subject. In this way, seemingly normal elements in the video footage are verbally marked out for the viewer and then described as definitive evidence of gangstalking.
The visual frame itself constitutes a type of deixis. By pointing the camera in a direction, at a particular scene, the image creator is effectively pointing at the scene and indicating that there is something relevant or noteworthy about it. In other words, image creators use the gaze of the camera to direct attention to salient content. The point-of-view (POV) shot is a shot in which the camera assumes the position of a subject to show us what that subject sees [
Still image illustrating the use of zoom.
For example, one video is shot in a shopping mall and the evidentiary portion of the video depicts people walking around and shopping. A portion of the video depicts this in time lapse and then returns to normal speed to display
Image depicting visual deixis.
Systemic functional linguistics (SFL) uses the concept of transitivity to identify how speakers use language to describe their experience. It groups all processes, expressed by verbs, into six categories: material, behavioral, mental, existential, verbal, and relational [
In a video of a TI at a store, he says:
Literally look at ‘em all come over here.
Later in the same video:
Ha ha ha. It's so obvious. Absolute madness. Look at the whole store. Look at it. Barely anyone. Couple people here, and then wham, look at that. They just all came and flooded me like that, eh.
In this example, the TI uses the transitive material verb
In contrast to material processes, which involve physical actions, behavioral processes exist at the border of material and mental processes and represent an external manifestation of cognitive processes [
In this example, a vlogger documents his harassment at a gas station. Referring to a woman standing at the station, he says:
She's going to be constantly staring at me and no doubt running what happens in that store and who comes out of it and at what time.
By describing the woman’s behavior—“staring at me”—as constant, the video producer is able to represent this woman’s actions as suspicious, supporting the subsequent claim that she is “no doubt running what happens” in the store. Staring therefore becomes evidence of widespread, orchestrated harassment.
Behavioral processes such as this lie in the hinterland between thought and outward behavior. This is fertile ground for projection of the persecutory belief system. If the processes inferred were entirely mental, typically denoted by such verbs as
Vloggers make extensive use of text in apposition to video footage to create salience and construct the gangstalking narrative.
In another example, an image depicts an outdoor urban neighborhood with people walking and cars being driven. As
Unmarked image of a shopping cart.
Title card suggests a deeper connotative meaning of the image.
Third image in the series attempting to definitely define the significance of the image.
Combination of text and image assigns connotative significance.
A third example (
Use of text and emoji to construe salience of image.
When posting videos on YouTube and other social media sites, a creator may direct them to a specific audience. More commonly, however, videos are merely “out there” for any other internet user to find and consume. They are meant for “anybody and everybody, or possibly nobody” [
TIs can choose between shots that depict them speaking to the camera and shots in which the camera assumes the position of a subject to show us what they see and to invite us to experience it contemporaneously with them. These compositional choices define the relationship between vlogger and viewer in a process called subjectification [
Creators of the videos also use the introductory portion as an opportunity to affiliate with viewers. They gaze directly into the camera and arguably seek to establish a relationship with their viewers by looking directly at them. Such an image is known as a
When addressing viewers directly, vloggers uniformly adopt a friendly, helpful, and explanatory tone as one might expect in an instructional video. TIs generally address viewers as equals; they do not use formal language or speak disrespectfully.
All right, everyone. Looks like gangstalking is at hand. You guys wanted to see some video. Well. It's about to happen.
In this example, the TI uses the politeness strategy [
What’s up YouTube? It’s your boy [redacted] coming at you with another one. You know what I’m sayin’?
In this instance, the TI adopts a friendly, conversational tone and informal forms of address that would not be out of place in more mainstream YouTube vlogs aimed at a young audience.
Yeah, guys, what's going on? Yeah, so something really crazy happened to me today.
Hey, guys. I've got some footage here of me filling up at a service station, and it shows just how the handlers orchestrate things.
Similarly, in the coda section of the vlogs, vloggers adopt a similar register with viewers:
Peace and love and light to all. I'm out.
Thank you. I'm [redacted], and I'm out in Oklahoma. September 15th, 2:05 pm. Have a good day.
But anyways, guys I'm gonna get off here for now. Um, enjoy your day. Unfortunately, it's rainy. Cloudy and rainy here today, but it's still a beautiful day, you guys. Stay happy. Stay peaceful. And yeah, just keep the hope going. Everything's gonna be good. Love you, guys. Bye.
POV shot conflates the identity of the viewer and the targeted individual. POV: point of view.
In contrast to the affiliation construed with viewers, TIs use a different set of multimodal discursive strategies to construct others as being hostile and malicious and to increase interpersonal distance between themselves and the perps they claim are represented in the videos.
In contrast to the generally positive regard creators demonstrate toward viewers, they use a variety of discursive strategies to express negative affect—primarily anger and hostility—toward other people present in the videos. They also use compositional strategies to distance themselves from those represented as engaged in gangstalking.
In the evidentiary portion of the vlogs, depictions of perps of gangstalking use long-distance shots, as shown in
Long-distance shots create distance between perps and the vlogger/viewer dyad. vlogger: video blogger.
Use of framing disconnects perps from TIs. TI: targeted individual.
TIs engage in a variety of face-threatening acts with others in their videos. “Face” is a sociological concept, originating in the work of Goffman [
Why are you gangstalking? Why are you gangstalking me? Why are you gangstalking me? Why are two cars pulled up with their headlights facing me? Are you doing a psyop?
This utterance is face threatening in that it includes direct questioning but with no attempts at softening or redressing its direct, pointed nature. The formulation “Why are you gangstalking?” presupposes that the interlocutor is in fact engaged in gangstalking and leaves no room for a version of events in the way that the question “Are you gangstalking me?” would. Further, repeating the question several times in rapid succession lends a sense of urgency and even aggression to the interrogation.
In another video, a TI enters a Walmart store and confronts a group of people smoking cigarettes at the store entrance:
Aye, my god, you know there's, like, a cigarette place you can smoke over there? It's right there to the left. You feel me? So, like, you smoke a lot right here, that shit, like, that's fucked up. You know what I'm saying? But you could smoke right there, though.
In this example, the TI enacts impoliteness by calling out the behaviors of the interlocutors, who were apparently not known to him previously, and using expletives in pointedly criticizing their behavior [
Immediately after disengaging from the group, the vlogger turns to the camera and says, “
I'm tired of this shit, boy. But I'm not gonna feed into it. Imma keep doing my thing. I appreciate you all up in my motherfucking comments, talking about some “Oh, don't feed into it.” But I've been ignoring this shit for too long.
This abrupt change of tone signals to viewers that although the TI is angry with those portrayed in the video, viewers are exempt from this and are in fact valued. Taken together, these strategies function to establish in- and out-groups around the vlogs. Although viewers are addressed using the language of social intimacy and as part of a shared community, perps who appear in the videos are explicitly confronted, interrogated, and sworn at. Despite engaging in such socially proscribed behavior, the way in which gangstalking vloggers explicitly justify their impoliteness toward perps also serves to present themselves as generally reasonable and polite; they mark their rudeness as an acceptable way to treat their purported harassers but also as a deviation from the otherwise genial register with which they address their intended audience. Nevertheless, such confrontational behavior creates a spectacle in the videos themselves, allowing the audience to vicariously experience direct altercations with apparent perps.
Throughout our data, and as indicated in the extant literature regarding gangstalking [
And it's to a point where I'm, like, OK. Cool. You all wanna be about that life, I be about it too. I'll record all your all ass . . . you try to provoke me, I'll put your ass on this camera.
Faces turned. They know that they're being filmed now. Look, they turn away. They shy away.
Tell you y'all. These damn demons won't stop. And I ain't gonna stop recording them.
By using the notion of perps being caught unawares and being unwillingly publicly exposed, the TIs can offset the power differential to some degree and partially restore a sense of agency. Creators frequently refer to perps as being frightened of exposure. The power of the videos, or more specifically the act of filming, to strike fear in perps is thus presented as helping TIs to redress the perceived power imbalance inherent in the persecutory belief system, wherein it is otherwise the perps who maliciously wield their collective power over TIs.
In some instances, community members appear unnerved by vloggers filming them, and the act of filming itself forms the basis of hostile interactions between vloggers and participants in the evidence videos.
In this instance, a vlogger confronts shoppers at a grocery store. He films them and accuses them of gangstalking him. He demands to see the manager, and when the manager arrives, the following exchange ensues, highlighting the act of filming as a source of conflict.
TI: Ah, here you are, mate. How are you? Good?
Manager: I'm good. How are you?
TI: Yeah, not bad. What's your name?
Manager: Why are you filming everyone?
TI: Oh, don't worry, man. I will . . . I won't post this on YouTube, I just want . . .
Manager: No, no. I'm just asking why you're filming everyone.
TI: I'm not filming people. I just wanna ask you a question.
Manager: No, no. You are filming, innit?
TI: No, no. Uh. No, no. Uh. Uhm. Can I ask you a quick question?
Manager: Can you stop that, please?
TI: Yeah, yeah. Of course.
TIs regard their filming as gathering evidence in an objective manner about activities that occur, regardless of whether they are being filmed. However, perps regard the process of filming itself as aggressive, hostile, and unnerving and respond with their own face-threatening acts by insisting that the filming cease. The act of filming, which is designed to capture hostility, appears to elicit the very phenomenon it attempts to document, thereby serving as something of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Semiotics, the study of signs, defines a sign as composed of a signifier and a signified [
Our analysis revealed that the vloggers, who identify as individuals targeted by gangstalking, use a variety of multimodal strategies to indicate the salience of the acts depicted, thereby construing the gangstalking narrative. These included linguistic deictic features, paralinguistic features, and features operating through the visual frame.
Although the stated purpose of the videos is to document and disseminate evidence of the gangstalking phenomenon, vloggers also accomplish interpersonal tasks in the videos. On the one hand, they generate intersubjective ambient affiliation with viewers of the videos. On the other, they create hostility and reinforce animus with people depicted in the videos—a process we termed “representational disaffiliation.” This may serve to strengthen community building with viewers by projecting authenticity and intimacy [
The videos use the rhetorical trope of synecdoche, where a part is used to stand in for the whole. Gangstalking is described as a widely distributed and pervasive system, but videos must be limited in scope in time and space due to practical constraints. The scenes depicted in the videos are meant to stand in for the pervasive nature of gangstalking. TIs are asking viewers of these videos to generalize the specific instances depicted.
The videos highlight the Derridean concept of différance. Derrida argued that “the signified concept is never present in and of itself, in a sufficient presence that would refer only to itself. Every concept is inscribed in a chain or in a system within which it refers to the other, to other concepts, by means of a systematic play of differences” [
This observation may have important clinical ramifications. Traditionally, psychiatrists define delusions as fixed beliefs that are not amenable to change, considering conflicting evidence [
Our findings provide insight into a novel persecutory belief system. Interpersonal concerns are important for people affected, and they construe others as either sympathetic or hostile. They create a positive ambient affiliation with viewers. Vloggers use multimodal deixis to illustrate the salience of the belief system. Clinicians may consider stepping away from the traditional true/false dichotomy endorsed by psychiatric classification systems and focus on the ambiguity in semiotic systems generally and in persecutory belief systems specifically.
Application Programming Interface
point of view
systemic functional linguistics
targeted individual
video blog
video blogger
The following individuals merit thanks for providing helpful comments: Joshua Schuster and Juveria Zaheer.
None declared.