Deconstructing media, misinformation & MySpace

reporterShooter story update:

CNN reported a 16-year old boy who ‘wanted to be a hero’ told the press the gunman wanted ONLY GIRLS as hostages, but “his mother said later that her son was lying.”

Reason I’m deconstructing?

We have a textbook case of media’s impact on kids here.

1.) A boy got all fired up on the froth of fame over facts.

2.) Media jumped the gun with misinformation. They’re about to do it again, by hyping the “rumored” MySpace list of names gleaned by the gunman.

3.) Parents will now panic about potential “over-sharing” as teens in the MySpace generation scramble to explain, define, and demystify their personal profiles and social networking habits.

As Vonnegut would say, “and so it goes.”

Media’s tugging the public’s emotional strings like a marionette…(btw, the “all girls were assaulted” angle continues full tilt, sans definition or elaboration; sex sells remember?)

We all need to settle down and LEARN…about teen culture, digital media, the proposed congressional “Deleting Online Predators Act“…EVERYthing. Otherwise we’re just reacting.

Parents get scared senseless into a wide-eyed restrictive tizzy when media depicts the threat of lurking pedophiles and crazymaking shooters on the school scene.

We have to get past wildly upsetting spins to broaden the dialogue toward critical thinking.

We need to get BEYOND demonizing new media vs. old media or the sensationalism that spawns ignorance, polarity and fear. The ‘what ifs’ of real and perceived risks leave people in a weird sort of electronic paralysis.

MySpace is now swirling around as the teen scene portion of this story, so let’s uncork the pros AND cons of ALL social networking software…filter use, legislation, teen trust of cyber culture, intimacy of posting personal profiles, pictures, texting, IM, etc. while we’re at it.

Gee, there might even be a sound opportunity to understand our kids better by sharing our worlds!

In fact, in a salute to new media’s positive pleasures, a mere ‘google and a click’ brought me to some great minds in 2 minutes vs. countless hours of research in my library days.

The most intelligent resource I found in the social networking arena comes from an MIT news office interview between MIT’s Co-Director of Comparative Media Studies Henry Jenkins and Cal Berkeley School of Information Ph.D. candidate Danah Boyd.

It’s a perfect primer for parents who want to grok new media’s basic controversies and ‘who cares’ questions all wrapped up in one concise jewel.

They define MySpace (Xanga, Facebook, & the entire social media phenom) discuss the impact of proposed DOPA legislation, present a balanced view of new media’s impact on kids……AND use logic, reason and grounding instead of responding to emotional, heart-wrenching headlines.

Ahhhhhhhhh….if only the press could be so thorough…

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