Charles (Chas) Monge is a PhD candidate graduating in the spring, studying toxicity in online interaction.
His dissertation looks at how people interact online, focusing on the negative aspects and why they occur.
“My research looks at how [online context] changes the way that our communication operates most generally. A lot of my projects are looking at that in the context of when people are being real jerks to one another,” Monge said.
Monge said he chose to study toxic online behavior because of his interest in how people interact.
“What really struck me was how normal, good people who aren’t jerks, were being real jerks in these spaces [social media platforms]. And I just couldn’t fathom how and why that was happening,” Monge said.
Monge studied psychology and sociology at Illinois College and received his master's in psychology science at The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His interest in research started because of an introduction to research class while he was an undergraduate.
Monge chose Ohio State to pursue his PhD because of his interest in the research program and faculty who now serve as his advisors.
He has received several awards for his work through the Ohio State School of Communication, such as the Doris Gildea Morgan Scholarship Award in 2024 and the Walter B. Emery Research Scholarship Award in 2023.
Monge recently published articles in top peer-reviewed journal publications. His article pertaining to toxic online behavior was published in the Journal of Communication and his article published on smurfing, an online cheating behavior, was published in New Media & Society.
Additionally, he received the Top Paper Award in the Communication Theory and Methods division this year from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.
Collaborating and working with his advisors has been an important part of the process for Monge.
“They’ve let me research exactly what I want to in the way I want to, and they’ve been teaching me how to be the best me I can be in the research context,” Monge said.
Monge is currently studying under Assistant Professor Nic Matthews and Associate Professor Matthew Grizzard.
Monge conducts his research in a variety of ways. Sometimes he uses video games to test different ideas and help ask important questions.
“Video games offer researchers a bunch of social situations and contexts that are great places to test predictions from social theory,” Monge said.
He also uses social media to test ideas and storytelling devices, and to look more closely at principles of how people think about certain characters.
“I’ve done several projects on Facebook, only one or two on Reddit so far,” Monge said.
In addition to his research, Monge is currently teaching an undergraduate class on intercultural communication and will teach Industry Research Methods in the coming spring semester.
Monge plans to be an assistant professor after he finishes his dissertation in spring 2025.
Article by student Jane Greco
