YouTube

Since communities began gathering, creating, and sharing, there have been individuals who insist on harsh criticism and forms of bullying, from the tyrannical sort to simply just pushing someone around. Bullying online is a huge controversial issue in the media currently. The YouTube comments section of almost any user uploaded video is bound to have plenty of negative, hateful comments.  It is impossible to patrol any commentary online, as the internet runs rampant with trolls-  people who“post a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument"(urbandictionary.com). Is this online commentary a form of bullying? What causes people to feel obligated in sharing their hate for a certain YouTube user channel? First Amendment rights are human rights, but is there a line that is crossed, such as online stalking or teenagers turning to suicide after online harassment? As many “trolls” as there are online, many users still characterize an enduring human spirit, as many continue on unfazed, posting their own no-budget renditions of pop hits with seemingly no sense of embarrassment  or even more surprising, use these comments (which often are not constructive, but merely just critical) to appease their viewers and hopefully make their content more likable.

New media uses the online comments sections as a communication platform. As opposed to risking face-to-face criticism or navigating the complicated logictics inherent in the music industry, many aspiring musicians use YouTube as a form of exposure. Certainly there have been celebrities “found” on these networking sites, such as Justin Beiber or Rebecca Black. Conversely, some people use the comments section of these musicians' channels to voice harsh, hateful opinions about the work. These comments would be considered the pinnacle of anti-social, aggressive behavior if they were vocalized in a face to face setting. Online however, this behavior is the norm. The YouTube comments section is particularly interesting because of its “lack of clear rules of conduct and the way in which it challenges traditional conceptions of social space.” (Signs of Life, 446). In fact, trolling is a new form of communication and shapes facets of our collective popuar culture . Anecdotal evidence shows that these behaviors are generally believed to be the work of younger users, but“some YouTube participants and observers suggested that maturity plays a role in prompting hating behaviors, others argued that many young people are quite intelligent and are capable of participating on YouTube without making hateful comments.”(Lange, “Commenting on Comments”). The internet has simply offered a way to express unpopular emotions without risking societal reprimand concerning rules about public courtesy. 

UrbanDictionary.com (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=trolls  Oct. 2012)

Lange, Patricia G.  “Commenting On Comments: Investigating Responses to Antagonism on Youtube”

(http://sfaapodcasts.files.wordpress.com/2007/04/update-apr-17-lange-sfaa-paper-2007.pdf,   Oct. 2012)

circle K/seven 11/whatever

I learned tonight that a convenience store is selling red, republican Romney cups and blue, democratic Obama cups. Supposedly, the selling of each will be tallied and the chain will announce a "winner".  It seems unlikely that a marketing scheme like this will have an effect on anything or that this poll will be accurate in any way. It's crazy to think about the implications of something like this though. Pop culture advertising can morph seemingly any and everything into a meaningless exercise in consumerism. The fact that the political sphere is so intertwined with the corporate advertising, branding, marketing, and distribution (i.e. money) is disturbing to me. I consider myself highly political, knowledgeable, and aware, as far as things like this go, and I realize most people do not give a damn either way if there are certain coffee cups to use to show your affinity for a certain candidate. Pop culture has invaded the political spectrum of our society, however. It's not something you can really argue about, but I the two things should be separate! It is almost offensive, in a way, that these huge businesses would engage such a serious topic (after all, our government affects all of us) without any regard for a certain sense of dignity about the whole thing.

There are many instances where news production companies struggle to be the first ones on the scene. There is some merit to being the first “late-breaking” story.  Yet, there are many times news broadcasters wish they had waited just a little while longer to show on-air what they thought was news, but turned out to be conjecture (polling results, for example.) This on-air suicide is much more serious and has many more implications.

Rumours and conjecture often travel much faster than the facts themselves. In our rush for information, be it good or bad, many people don't care about accuracy. We want all the information and we want it now, with rarely a care for fact-checking. Many television corporations are aware of this and send out information as quickly as possible. Later, if revisions need to be mde or mistakes apologized for, it seems like no big deal to go back and change whatever information was put out there in the first place. Nine times out of ten, the news would have gone on to some other sensationalized story anyway.

Ideally, the news would be facts only, objective stories about current events, good and bad. Watching network news now, though, seems to suggest that the violent crimes and out-of-the-ordinary stories are the ones that get all the press. And not only do they take up space on the news roster, they are often presented in such a way that suggests how we should feel about the story- they are also blown out of proportion. On the other hand, local news attempts to temper their violence-ridden, biased news stories with fluff pieces about fashion shows and cute pets, which also serves to undermine the realities that we live everyday.

It's not a surprise that this man shot himself. It is surprising that it happened on-air. People expecting to tune into the news should not have to witness live people dying. On the other hand, what kind of people watch car cashes? Inevitabley, these cars crash and people die. That's to be expected. This is not the kind of news I would want to watch on television, or anywhere else. Many people in our culture though treat life as a sort of movie. If there is a car accident, many feel entitled to all the gory details.