That title is a quote from one of my current professors (maintaining
that person’s anonymity): but seriously--what is up with those anonymous internet
comments? Has humanity always been so absurdly racist, sexist, and really every
other negative term ending in “-ist”, but it was simply not recorded as well as
it is today, with the onset of mass anonymous commenting and messaging…
I’d say that psychoanalytical theory is
starting to look more and more realistic each day with the increasing amounts
of hatred found on the internet. (Psychoanalytical (a.k.a. Freudian) theory extremely
simplified: the human brain functions completely based on desires, via the ‘id’,
there is then the ‘super-ego’, which is supposed to be the civilizing side, and
then the ‘ego’ tries to strike a balance between the two)(Inspired by Cannon).
The connection I am making is that the ‘ego’ gives up on the ‘super ego’ to
some extent when there appears to be no consequences for acting out on the id’s
desires, such as anonymity. [I could not find a reference for this very
nit-picky, particular Freudian connection I wanted to make, so yes I am
extrapolating based on what I know about psychoanalytical theory]. I wish that
I had kept a screenshot collection of the crap I’ve read others say to each
other because of how they feel invincible via an anonymity shield, but I have simply
tried to ignore it.
It
should go without saying at this point how this fits in with the digital media/social
justice crossroads. Anonymous correspondence gives people the ability to say
things that they would never say in real life to another person. Is this just a
method of redirecting underlying feelings and is thus somehow healthy; however,
that question steps outside of this course’s bounds.
So, my central concept
is to look at how anonymous communications effects people and situations. I
have found a stack of literature of people writing on how it hurts society in
many ways, such as compromising democracy by removing accountability (see David
Davenport) and helping the growth of ultra-polarization/nationalism (Both the Toronto Star and The Economist), among cyberbullying and other issues; however, I
haven’t found much on the positive side yet, besides some scary cases of hotels
and rental companies coming after clients/tenants with legal action after a
former customer gave the group a negative review(even when it was posted
anonymously)( Marchitelli).
My direct idea for producing the story will take one of
two paths, both using the same basic tools. I plan to stick to what I know
(local-powered programs) rather than mess around with some online tool that
could disappear overnight, like all of those broken links from http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/StoryTools.
I will either make a documentary on the subject or try to come up with a fictional
storyline of someone being cyber-bullied and/or benefiting from anonymity at the
same time. I originally wanted to touch on surveillance as well, but I would
start running into significant issues finding literature for that given the amount
of trouble it took me to get a preliminary set of sources for the messaging and
anonymity component.
My specific tool idea at the moment is to take pictures
and apply what is known as the “Ken Burns” effect, where movement is created on
still images by careful transitions and camera panning/zooming. I cite in the
Bibliography the video I watched to figure out how to set it up properly, and I
embedded a sample that I made of the effect in this post. The image is a
leftover resource from another recent project; it is an edited version of the
girl in the red coat from Schindler’s
List. I also tried to use Google Slides for the effect, but it is far more
of a headache than it is worth compared to just using far more powerful,
full-featured movie editing programs.
I guess you could consider the general theme to be a bit
indecisive; I can really see either way (pro or against anonymity) with this
issue, but yet I can have strong opinions for either side. Also, I plan to add
some voiceover of course to the video for the digital story. So, in summary,
the idea is to use local-powered programs (cloud computing is overrated) to
make a documentary-style or a fictional narrative story dealing with the
benefits and issues associated with anonymity on the internet, primarily for anonymous
communications. I may even try to do a two-charter dialogue/debate, could be
pretty interesting to pull-off.
Annotated Bibliography
Cannon, Joan Bartczak.
"Psychoanalytic Psychology." Salem Press Encyclopedia of Health.
N.p.: Salem, 2014. N. pag. Web. 22 Nov. 2014.
<http://0-search.ebscohost.com.library.jcu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ers&AN=93872169&site=eds-live>.
Used as a refresher for the little
piece on id, superego, ego.
"Cyber-nationalism: The Brave
New World of E-hatred." Economist 388 (2008): 69-70. Web. 22 Nov.
2014. <http://0-search.ebscohost.com.library.jcu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eft&AN=508081666&site=eds-live>.
See “How the Internet's Become an
Engine of Hatred” Entry
Davenport, David. "Anonymity on
the Internet: Why the Price May Be Too High." Communications of the ACM
45.4 (2002): 33-35. Web. 21 Nov. 2014.
Cynical/skeptical view of the anonymity,
pretty heavily against it.
Guichard, Audrey. "Hate Crime
in Cyberspace: The Challenges of Substantive Criminal Law." Information
& Communications Technology Law 18.2 (2009): 201-34. Web. 22 Nov. 2014.
<http://0-search.ebscohost.com.library.jcu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=41998118&site=eds-live>.
I haven’t used this one yet, but it
will come in handy if I went the fictional route and had a court case part.
"How the Internet's Become an
Engine of Hatred." Toronto Star (Canada). N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag.
Web. 21 Nov. 2014.
<http://0-search.ebscohost.com.library.jcu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bwh&AN=6FP4187289485&site=eds-live>.
Works alongside ‘Cyber-nationalism:
The Brave New World of E-hatred’ to provide some background on another
disturbing issue associated with this.
Marchitelli, Rosa. "Negative
Online Reviews Led to Threats of Legal Action from Targeted Businesses." CBCnews.
CBC/Radio Canada, 20 Oct. 2014. Web. 21 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/negative-online-reviews-led-to-threats-of-legal-action-from-targeted-businesses-1.2803572>.
Crazy news story, and it isn’t the
only case of this, more than one company is pulling this crap.
Scott, Susan V., and Wanda J.
Orlikowski. "Entanglements in Practice: Performing Anonymity through
Social Media." MIS Quarterly 38.3 (2014): 873-93. Web. 21 Nov.
2014.
This is a big one, it seems a bit
over my head, but I think I got something out of it, some studies on anonymous
reviews. Probably my closets link to NSA surveillance.
Thefrugalfilmmaker. "Sony
Vegas: Ken Burns Effect." Sony Vegas: Ken Burns Effect. YouTube, 10
Aug. 2012. Web. 21 Nov. 2014.
This was used to bring me
up-to-speed on how to use a "Ken Burns" effect, which is moving a
camera on a still image to create a kind of motion.
