MED104 Week 2 Discussion Questions

• Identify and discuss community fears and concerns about new media use.
• Consider violent and sexually explicit content on the web and in games.
• Discuss net filters and government regulations as well as resistance to regulation.

Concerns about new media I think fall greatly on the issue of authentic identity online. It is very easy online to create a fictitious persona and become someone else in cyberspace – someone very different from your offline identity. This can be within social networks, chat rooms, forums, games, blogs, dating sites etc.  It is difficult for online users, in fact almost impossible if you don’t know them in the offline world, to know if someone is who they say they’re online. Add to this that online communications are largely devoid of the verbal inflexions and body language that over the history of mankind have been used to connote and communicate effectively – giving the correct context to our communications -  then  it is possible to indicate this as a major issue. An issue that is trying to be resolved by net users as they develop new ways to communicate online but are still to simplistic to succeed (emoticons don’t cut it I’m afraid).  Online people can choose to set their own framework for themselves and act out a role that may be very different from their real self within that framework, whilst this may not be new as Goffman (1959) proposes that we do this in all kinds of different social frameworks, the scope of different roles, and the ability to play multiple roles all at once is different.

Violent and sexually explicit online content should be “regulated by code” as Lessig put it. Whilst this may be seen as a big brother measure the web needs some structure to provide social and cultural gate keeping. I don’t think access to such materials should be denied but the individuals who do use these should be easily identifiable and mirror the access to these materials offline. For example, if you want sexually explicit material offline you actually have to go to a sex shop, and whilst the workers don’t know who are and you still have anonymity, the act of actually going there for the individual is very different as the shop is in the public sphere. Online you can remain in your space and the public sphere would never know in anyway what you are looking at which makes it an easier option for consumers of the material as it is far more removed from the public sphere. Not many people would walk into a sex shop whilst down the street, but many more may take a sneaky look online free of prying eyes.

With violence I find it hard to condone violent movies, games, music and say that these remain separate from the offline world as when they become commoditized (Turner, 1969), as they have been as part of the process of regulating a deviance into popular culture, they then become part of pop culture which we all then begin to consume in some way thus creating an ongoing trend towards the acceptance of violent media in the community and thus I think a gradual increase in violence in the community.

I am not in favour of Net filters and government regulation unless it is a process that is completely transparent and inclusive of all parties equally – State, Corporations and Community. I am in favor of a reduction in online anonymity as if a person is held accountable in the offline world for their online dealings then I think the web would be a very different place and far more regulable as many of the rules and customs of offline society would be more easily transferred and applied within cyberspace. In short – Don’t block the content just make people accountable for the content they access.

Goffman, E 1959. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. 1st Edition. Anchor.

Turner, V 1969. ‘Liminality and Communitas (part 1 of 2)’ in The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure , Aldine Transaction, pp.94-118.