I've been trying to get this internship , and its a big to do with the school's registrar and the company. Don't worry, I'll be bemoaning the wiles of the internet this week.
In the meantime- WHAT THE FUPPETS!
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
2008: Year of the Cam-Whore
2009 is already here, but I wanted to take a look back on the worst the Internet had to offer us in 2008. There were so many train wrecks to watch on the net mainly because 2008 was the year of the webcam, now that high quality cameras are readily available everyone wanted to be a star… and oh lordy how our eyes and ears suffered.
Emily before and after youtube fame, Forrow Your Dreams Emiry -___-'
YouTube makes a star… a soft-core porn star. Two years ago a young girl obsessed with Japan with much love for their language started making “ pretty intense” Japanese lessons, she became a YouTube sensation.
Applemilk1988 by 2008 was the darling of Youtube. I know what you’re thinking, how is this the worst? Well around September 2008 Emily ,now living in Japan, announced that she was doing some modeling and releasing a DVD. She called herself an “Idol” which is Japanese for “video ho”.
Though the video and still shots earned her a spot on G4’s women on the web, you can’t help but think, if the poor girl has only been in Japan for a year and was already making soft-core wank DVDs what does the future really hold for her? Many of these Japanese DVD idols end up doing porn… and if there’s any porn worst that Japanese porn I’ve yet to see it.
My prediction - by next year she’ll have eels in at least one of her sexual orifices. She says that she wants to become a singer and that’s the only reason why she’s bouncing around in wet lingerie but as the second most subscribed YouTube user in Japan wouldn’t it be easier to just make a YouTube video showing off your vocal skills? It’s Japanese pop music not the Metropolitan Opera, you don’t have to try that hard.
Video sharing sites became heaven for pedophiles. It seemed almost every other week in 2008 there was some YouTube video shot by children or by parents that had other users screaming for child protective services. Children yelling profanity sometimes even children pole dancing (next to mom of course)
Mommy and Me Pole dancing, there's nothing wrong with that...except everything.
It seems that everywhere you looked there were children being exploited for the entertainment of their parents and to the delight of all the Humbert Humberts of the world. I’m not saying that any mother that videotapes their toddler attempts to dance is exploiting them, but when the toddler is grinding to Britney Spears in booty shorts and belly shirt I think we have a problem.
Larry Sinclair- I had sex coked up gay sex with Obama! Obama girl wasn’t the only person, who had fantasies about Obama in 2008 Larry Sinclair went on YouTube during the primaries to tell the world that he had gay sex with Obama in his limo.
The seemingly toothless Sinclair sat in front of a webcam to annouce that he was at an upscale establishment in Chicago when he met Obama ( he calls him Barry), they got in Sinclair’s limo where Obama gave him cocaine while Obama smoked crack. Oh Jebus, how I wish I were making this up.
Sinclair went on to make a website www.larrysinclair.org which looks pretty much like the website that everyone made in their high school HTML class. On the site he begs for paypal donations and pre-sells copy of his book BARACK OBAMA & LARRY SINCLAIR: Cocaine, Sex, Lies & Murder? What makes this sad is just how embarrassing it is.
I’ve never seen a human being so desperate to be a news story. When he was approached by Whitehouse.com (a satire/adult) website to take a polygraph test, he failed to see that they were openly mocking him.
Perhaps , he was just in it for the cash- Whitehouse.com did offer to pay him ten thousand dollars to take the test and another $90,000 if he passed.
Well he failed the test. Undaunted Sinclair went to Antipolygraph.org for help, to say that he’s still telling the truth and it’s the machines that can’t be trusted. It seems kind of damning, at least to me that he keeps all his posts up, especially those where Sinclair pleads that all he needs is a polygraph test, then when he gets one and fails suddenly the tests aren’t trust worthy?
It also doesn’t help that Sinclair’s websites and videos are used to prove that Barack Obama is the anti-Christ, apparently the anti-Christ has to be a gay crack head. Sinclair claims he has pre-sold over 200 copies of his book through paypal, at $25 each, that would mean that Sinclair has made $15,000 off this stunt. If that’s not the worst I don’t know what is.
Bonus Video-
Larry being clearly insane.
Emily before and after youtube fame, Forrow Your Dreams Emiry -___-'
YouTube makes a star… a soft-core porn star. Two years ago a young girl obsessed with Japan with much love for their language started making “ pretty intense” Japanese lessons, she became a YouTube sensation.
Applemilk1988 by 2008 was the darling of Youtube. I know what you’re thinking, how is this the worst? Well around September 2008 Emily ,now living in Japan, announced that she was doing some modeling and releasing a DVD. She called herself an “Idol” which is Japanese for “video ho”.
Though the video and still shots earned her a spot on G4’s women on the web, you can’t help but think, if the poor girl has only been in Japan for a year and was already making soft-core wank DVDs what does the future really hold for her? Many of these Japanese DVD idols end up doing porn… and if there’s any porn worst that Japanese porn I’ve yet to see it.
My prediction - by next year she’ll have eels in at least one of her sexual orifices. She says that she wants to become a singer and that’s the only reason why she’s bouncing around in wet lingerie but as the second most subscribed YouTube user in Japan wouldn’t it be easier to just make a YouTube video showing off your vocal skills? It’s Japanese pop music not the Metropolitan Opera, you don’t have to try that hard.
Video sharing sites became heaven for pedophiles. It seemed almost every other week in 2008 there was some YouTube video shot by children or by parents that had other users screaming for child protective services. Children yelling profanity sometimes even children pole dancing (next to mom of course)
Mommy and Me Pole dancing, there's nothing wrong with that...except everything.
It seems that everywhere you looked there were children being exploited for the entertainment of their parents and to the delight of all the Humbert Humberts of the world. I’m not saying that any mother that videotapes their toddler attempts to dance is exploiting them, but when the toddler is grinding to Britney Spears in booty shorts and belly shirt I think we have a problem.
Larry Sinclair- I had sex coked up gay sex with Obama! Obama girl wasn’t the only person, who had fantasies about Obama in 2008 Larry Sinclair went on YouTube during the primaries to tell the world that he had gay sex with Obama in his limo.
The seemingly toothless Sinclair sat in front of a webcam to annouce that he was at an upscale establishment in Chicago when he met Obama ( he calls him Barry), they got in Sinclair’s limo where Obama gave him cocaine while Obama smoked crack. Oh Jebus, how I wish I were making this up.
This tool made more money than me in 2008...RAGE! Seriously where is his teeth.
Well, Sinclair was pretty much ignored by every respected news source and he made more videos and a blog blaming that on liberal media bias. That doesn’t explain why Fox News snubbed him, they thought Barak the Magic Negro was appropriate.Sinclair went on to make a website www.larrysinclair.org which looks pretty much like the website that everyone made in their high school HTML class. On the site he begs for paypal donations and pre-sells copy of his book BARACK OBAMA & LARRY SINCLAIR: Cocaine, Sex, Lies & Murder? What makes this sad is just how embarrassing it is.
I’ve never seen a human being so desperate to be a news story. When he was approached by Whitehouse.com (a satire/adult) website to take a polygraph test, he failed to see that they were openly mocking him.
Perhaps , he was just in it for the cash- Whitehouse.com did offer to pay him ten thousand dollars to take the test and another $90,000 if he passed.
Well he failed the test. Undaunted Sinclair went to Antipolygraph.org for help, to say that he’s still telling the truth and it’s the machines that can’t be trusted. It seems kind of damning, at least to me that he keeps all his posts up, especially those where Sinclair pleads that all he needs is a polygraph test, then when he gets one and fails suddenly the tests aren’t trust worthy?
It also doesn’t help that Sinclair’s websites and videos are used to prove that Barack Obama is the anti-Christ, apparently the anti-Christ has to be a gay crack head. Sinclair claims he has pre-sold over 200 copies of his book through paypal, at $25 each, that would mean that Sinclair has made $15,000 off this stunt. If that’s not the worst I don’t know what is.
Bonus Video-
Larry being clearly insane.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Twilight Sucked ..and not in a good way
original print: 12/16/08
How the movie Twilight has managed to make over $30 million for its opening day is baffling, but the fact that it has made over $150 million in the last three weeks, I find just disheartening. There is no other way to say it; Twilight is a god awful sorry excuse for a movie. This movie is awful.Last year I wrote an article about Two Girls One Cup, and had to watch the shock video twice, I watched it both times without getting up- I had to walk out of Twilight twice just to keep myself from attacking the screen.
That pretty much means my tolerance for scat eating lesbians throwing up feces on each other was higher than it was for this stoic, drab insult to women's intelligence.
Twilight, which opened Nov. 21, is the teenaged "love" story of Bella Swan, the town sheriff's daughter and a local vampire pretty boy, Edward Cullen. The movie is based on the four book series by Stephanie Meyer.
I would usually advise to read the book, but they too are terrible.
You can't quite call it a vampire love story mainly because all supernatural elements of the story take a back seat to adolescence self importance and babbling about how special and great the two main characters are.
What this movie really consists of is two pale brunettes staring at each other with their mouths open for over 90mins.
There really isn't a love story either, about 10 minutes after meeting Edward, Bella wakes up and announces that she's in love with him.
Literally, she rolls out of bed , makes a short soliloquy about how much she can't stop thinking about him, and BAM- she's in love.
Its frustrating watching this, because the writer of the movie, has written several episodes of the hit show Dexter, a smart witty and sometimes gruesome show about the worlds most lovable serial killer. I kept asking myself where did all that talent go? In all honesty you have to remember that an adaptation can only be as good as it's source material, and comparatively the writer of the movie made Bella a much less offensive character.
The book has Bella more of a self-loathing ugly duckling and Edward, well he's still as much of a creepy stalker as he is in the book, but most of Edward watching Bella sleep at night was thankfully cut. The movie version of Bella opted to have her have no personality at all than have her be pathetic.
This is no Romeo and Juliet, Twilight lacks the bite of conflict. Sure Bella is a human, and Edward is a vampire, but he's a vegetarian vampire…he doesn't eat people. Note to the author of twilight- Deer are not vegetables as they are made of meat.
The reason that Edward doesn't want to go into the sunlight, spontaneous (awesome) combustion?
Nope, the reason is he'll sparkle like stripper that went overboard on the Fredrick's of Hollywood body dust.
Bella is the new girl at school did she feel like an awkward outcast? No,everyone instantly loves her, Edward's family instantly loves her, there's absolutely nothing to keep one invested in the cardboard problem free characters.
The first set of characters we meet are the children at Bella's school, they are all stock characters, the geeks, the pretty popular girls and the dumb jock , the all American stud. The second group are the Cullen's Edward's beautiful incestuous family.
They all seem to serve the purpose to tell the viewer that they love Bella, and we should accept that she's lovable even though she's given us no reason to care about her.
Bella's multi-culture pals were white in Meyer's book; the casting director decided that throwing in some minorities would liven up the film. I'm all for multi-ethnic casts, but when the dumb jock is the only black man in the movie, and the only two Asians are "nerds" you have to ask what was the point. Why not just stay at stereotypes without upgrading to racism.
This is most uncomfortable when the dumb jock loses control of his car and almost kills Bella in the school parking lot, of course her vampiric love is there to save the day, Bella is not harmed.
The Jock driving has a bleeding head wound and as he hangs out of the smoking car all he can do is apologize to Bella, as those around him scream and admonish him for almost hurting her.
The next scene is in a hospital where Bella is getting the attention of nurses; the bleeding black man is sitting alone, and then is told by Bella's father that he's losing his license.
My movie-watching companion made a joke that there was probably a deleted cross-burning scene, I laughed but I have to admit it would have fit seamlessly.
I'm sure it would be a close up of Bella long black hair blowing in the wind as the sheriff's department drag the jock out of his house and stomp on him, blurred in the background. If they can have vampires playing baseball why not, right?
The last 30 minutes of the movie is the only part of the movie with an attempt at conflict. Three bad vampires show up during a baseball game, yes you read that correctly.
For no reason other than to fill time one of the vampires wants to eat Bella.
This results in Edward trying to take Bella against her will to "protect her". This is also the point were I realize that this love story is one backhand away from being a Lifetime channel movie.
The Cullens try to save Bella, because they love her for no good reason. The bad vampire beats the crap out of her , which I have to admit was strangely satisfying to watch.
The good vampires rip him to pieces and set him on fire. Sounds awesome right? WRONG, You don't get to see it!
While the bad guy is getting dismembered the camera doesn't focus on this, it focuses on Bella and Edward staring at each other, because that the director felt was more interesting than a dismembered dude on fire.
Well, Catherine Hardwicke it's not.
Twilight is a horrible movie, made from a horrible book. The fact that people are giving this movie a pass because it was made for teenaged girls should be an insult to women everywhere.
© Copyright 2009 Observer
Fat Ass No More: Having a POLE lot of fun!
One RU Student's path to fitness.
original print : 12/9/08
It seems like a lifetime since I started on my odyssey of fitness and self-improvement; I've been at this since May. There's been a lot of blood, tears and Gatorade for me this year, but through it all I found myself bored. The only thing that changed in my fitness routine was that time I had less to work out.Because of work, classes and ,of course the glorious paper you hold in your hands (or read on-line), fitness had taken a back seat.
I found my self bored and lacking inspiration. I was waking up in the morning, throwing on a work out DVD going to class, going to work then going to the gym if I had the time to spare. I bet you yawned reading that sentence, imagine that as your life for 3 months.
I consider myself a resourceful woman, and when I see a problem I like to attack it directly. I didn't want my boredom to give way to lethargy. I needed to shake up my fitness routine. I wanted something fun, something that would make me feel good as well as look good.
Like most of life's problems YouTube solved this one, I noticed a video attached to one of mine that I never noticed before. It was call Miss Pole Dance Australia 2006, in it a small red haired Aussie performed Cirque De Soleil like feats of acrobatics, flexibility and strength. I was mesmerized. It was right then I knew what I had to do. I needed to learn the art of the pole.
I'm not the first woman to come to this conclusion. Since the beginning of the sexual revolution women have been reclaiming "erotic" arts as their own. Practicing these acts help women to enjoy their bodies without having to sexually gratify a man or feel degraded. There's no reason that a woman should feel ashamed just because she's moving her body. She should feel strong confident and beautiful.
Hungry for that feeling I looked for a studio in Newark to no avail, not to be discouraged I found a studio that could be easily reached using the Path train. One block away from the 33rd street path station lies, Exotic Dance Central, a cozy inviting studio that welcomes " the everyday woman".
On their website, ExoticDanceCenter.com they boast that they're "NYC's number one pole and exotic dance central" and I don't argue with them. I've never seen dance studio with a martini bar. If my high school ballet studio had one I might have never hung up my toe shoes.
The Erotic Dance Center offers a 2hr pole dancing intensive lesson for 60 dollars. It seemed like a steal because the only other 3 studios that offered pole dancing charged that or more for just one hour. I figured with my strong background in dance and frugal leanings this was where I belonged.
Of course, I did modern, lyrical and jazz dance. If dance were Greek city-states, ballet would be Athens, and pole dancing would be Sparta - not historically accurate Sparta , but 8-pack-sporting-panty-wearing- Frank Miller- Sparta. A gravity defying full body work out.
Exotic Dance Central's website lets you book and pay for classes online, so I made sure to book the first available intensive after Thanksgiving, -- if there's ever a time you need an intense workout its after ingesting 5 different types of pies.
The website tells you what you can and cannot wear, I was happy to see that I needed stiletto heels that are least 3 inches high. Finally, my two favorite things were coming together, "f" me shoes and fitness. I was far less happy to read I had to wear a tank top; I usually have an issue showing my flab in public, or at least well-lit places. Luckily for me and other shy women, the classes are female only.
The class was small only 12 people including our friendly instructor Alieesah. The chorus line was full of interesting people, save myself. Before we started the workout Alieesah asked each of us what brought us to the class. I felt horribly shy for some reason, and mumble something about being a special event dancer.
A bad joke, sadly weddings and bat mitzvahs are the only special events in which I'm able to dance.
I found that one of the ladies was a bride-to-be and brought three of her friends along to kick off her bachelorette party. There were a group of ladies that actually looked like they stepped out of Greek lore; they were fitness instructors looking to bring pole fitness to their gym. I tried not to look at my gut every time they flexed their abs. There was a woman who had just came from Israel, and served in the army, next to her was a woman whose husband was due home from Afghanistan and she was looking for a special welcome home.
This interesting cast of women were all sitting on yoga mats waiting to feel the burn and having no idea what was coming to them. It was a strange calm, we all sat barefoot listening to the soothing music from our instructor's Ipod. She led us through a nice warm up, stretching each portion of ourselves. If it weren't for the cold steal of the pole touching my ankle when I stretched in second position on the floor, I would have forgotten that I was in a pole dance studio and not a ballet one. Barefoot , limber and sweaty I felt in my element.
That feeling fled once it was time to meet the pole. Alieesah began to talk about "pole burn" , the nickname for the friction between your skin and the pole. It is every bit as uncomfortable as it sounds. My first introduction to this sensation was during our first pole exercise. I was instructed to grab the pole well above my head, grasp tightly and lift my legs off the ground. Sounds easy to you? Well then you are not a portly young lady with the upper body strength of a dead quadriplegic.
As I gripped with all my might and tried to keep my legs up, I could feel my skin and the pole going to war, and the pole was winning. It was an odd feeling, I had to chose between my skin being stretched or being "that fat girl that fell during pole dancing class" every time that bride to the story of her last outing as a single woman.
I refused; I held on to that pole with all my might, unfortunately gravity was mightier.
Tumbles aside, I found myself having fun, especially at the one hour mark of the class when I got to put on my 6.5 inch heels. It was kind of cool being 6'3 and a half. While it was hard for me to get past the controlled chaos that is swinging on the pole, I had fun strutting around and feeling … surprisingly sexy albeit the most clumsy unattractive brand of Sexy, akin maybe to the No Frills section of Pathmark.
Pole dancing is hard, and there really is no way around it. It's a shame that most of the people that excel at this skill are only rewarded with sweaty crumbled bills. What they deserve is applause and flowers; sadly that's not the case, yet. Feminist protest aside, any workout than can turn a fat ass into six feet-three-inches and 250 pounds of walking sex piled on top of itself has to be worth looking into.
For More Information or to have a pole adventure of your own go to ExoticDanceCentral.com
© Copyright 2009 Observer
The Monsters in Front of the Monitor
Posted: 12/2/08
On Nov. 19, a disturbed young man put an end to his life. This could be said of many people because suicide happens everyday in this country, but what sets the death of Abraham Biggs apart is that he died under the supervision of almost 200 people live on JustinTV.com.Biggs started blogging on his myspace page about having suicidal thoughts, shortly after he went to a forum he frequented, BodyBuilding.com (posting under the name "CandyJunkie") he shared with his community his intent to end his life. Biggs had a history of mental illness and had told the community he was attempting to end his life before. Some believing they were being hoaxed and others generally indiffrent, several users "called his bluff".
CandyJunkie obliged them . He started a live stream on JustinTV.com, a website that lets users put on live scheduled or impromptu shows for others along with chat and recording capabilities, and shared the link. They wanted live proof that he wanted to die so, Biggs posted a suicide note (that was posted on another site) and proceeded to ingest a deadly combination of drug and alchol.
Once broadcasting he showed his audience the pills he intended to take, with alcohol. After taking them he appeared incoherent, and collapsed onto the bed behind him with his face away from the camera. He would never get up.
He appeared to be breathing for about 3 hours, according to one posting on BodyBuilding.com, and then his breathing became shallow, then all together stopped.
It was only after he had consumed the pills and liquor that a moderator or "mod" was called to help. The BodyBuilding.com mod "Roxie" dismissed the thread and called Biggs an attention whore". Users on BodyBuilding.com and JustinTV.com then looked at Biggs postings to see where he lived, one poster JJlee138 who had earlier admonished fellow posters for egging Biggs on successfully contacted the local sheriff department. Help arrived a half hour later, but it's too late. Shocked viewers watched as an EMT checked Biggs's vital signs and solemnly covered his web camera.
Even after friends posted condolences on the youth's MySpace page, many believed they were watching an elaborate hoax. It was not until CNN reported the death as well as a post from Biggs older sister, Rosilind did the community realized what had really happend. They had watched a man die.
There are obviously many disturbing aspects to this sad story, but there are three things that disturb me the most the fact that a emotionally disturbed person was asked to basically make a live snuff film for the amusement of others. That those that opposed this act remained silent for so long and finally that people waited as long as they did to seek help.
While in all honesty looking at the original thread (since removed) the majority of posters did not want to see CandyJunkie die. Despite objecting to his actions, why did so many still watch, and do nothing?
The compliance of posters that wanted to help, but did not, to me is the same as seeing a child about to walk into a busy street, and waiting until they were hit by a car to call fo help.
While its comforting to know that someone eventually did call the police, it happend too late.
After the death was confirmed posters hurled venomous remarks at Biggs's friends and familily, callous remarks like that of poster YoMaMa84, after sending condolences they added, " … if any one should have helped him it should have been you."
I cannot remember the last time I felt so ashamed of humanity, a young lady loses her brother and in an attempt to defend the act of watching him die she is told that she didn't do enough to help?
A human life was lost, a life that means no more or less than one's own. I was thankful to read poster CelticFan rebottle to YoMAMA84 saying," You would think it was his PC hard drive that died, It was a (explitive)ing human being , you moron."
Sadly CelticFan's voice was one of decent on BodyBuilding.com's "Misc." forum, a do and say anything section of the website.
Even more sad is what this tells us about our relationship with the internet and each other. How detached have we become on this web that is supposed to connect us that a man screaming for help is used for the basis of bad jokes?
Perhaps we have regressed to the point where we cannot feel connected to our fellow man, but more disturbing is the thought that this isn't a regression at all, simply an amplification of human nature.
When I first heard about this, long before the the story hit the mainstream news, was how could someone watch someone's baby die like that- of course just like me, all those who watched emotionless, were someone's' baby also.
The most disturbing part of this ordeal is realizing that we just witnessed humanities' true face, and it's ugly.
© Copyright 2009 Observer
Seeing Is Not Believing and Lil' Wayne isn't dead
original print: 11/11/08
Reports of Lil' Wayne's death have been greatly exaggerated… and annoying. A fake web page created to look like BBC.com made its rounds Halloween weekend, sending his fans into a text messaging and googling frenzy. This is the second death rumor involving the rapper; during the Summer, a rumor that his child was killed in a car accident also circulated. These rumors travel like lightning, and they chip away at the trust many had in Internet journalism.
I'm in no way saying this is the internet generation's Pentagon papers; this is far from it. But every time some bored person goes nuts with CSS stylesheets , the belief that there are reputable and safe internet sites wavers in the hearts and minds of young and impressionable people. Minds that are obviously already mushy enough to buy a million copies of a seemingly drunk man yodel into a mic and call it music are the same minds that aren't going to examine urls in a moment of panic. The page was cloned from a reputable BBC article called "Letter-bombing caretaker jailed." The fake page even had active links to email the story and print it.
When I saw the link to the "news story" I didn't believe it for a moment. The url, http://kineticnorth.com/BBCNews/?NewsGUID=fcf016e0-c92b-445a-aab0-735fdcecf0a3, was not even hosted on the BBC site. The fact that the story also strangely popped up across the pond before being plastered all over CNN didn't seem too likely. Of course I'm not a 14-year-old-girl who sees the Internet as a homework machine and mystical portal that somehow makes Facebook happen. A more casual user might not look twice at the url of a site, they just see they were sent a link that said "OMG THEY SHOT WEEZY OMGZ" and, as far as they know, the man plastered on their locker is no more. Grief and panic ensues and they express it the only way they know how: texting everyone they know.
It's easy to spread a rumor, and anyone that survived high school knows that if enough people believe a lie, in a way it momentarily becomes the truth. When someone plays a "prank" using news websites, they are directly attacking the credibility of not only that organization they are taking a swipe at; they are attacking journalism on the internet as a whole. A virgining of an entity as the Internet is, there are many that tend to find information found in a newspaper or on TV is more believable.
It is a logical conclusion, after all. We have been reared with the traditional producer/consumer model of information. Something happens, a journalist writes the story and it's broadcast through the one-way street of television, radio and print. The Internet is a completely different monster. We have blog sites like the Huffington Post blurring the line between blog and news, and sites like Youtube where a CNN story might not get as many views as a teen performing an interesting trick in their living room. So when something with a familiar logo pops up, some automatically assume that they are seeing a trusted producer, even when they are actually just looking at the handy work of a crafty netizen like themselves, a person with no access to "privileged information" and really is just looking for some "lulz".
It could almost make one paranoid. Whom can you trust in a situation where the same medium that's expected to give you trusted information is overrun with content not concerned with journalistic integrity. This is further complicated in situations like a hoax. A hoax like the death of Lil' Wayne has only one objective: to deceive you. How can you check facts on the Internet when the very sites that are lifted above the others are tainted? It's enough to make one log off and pick up a newspaper…
Reports of Lil' Wayne's death have been greatly exaggerated… and annoying. A fake web page created to look like BBC.com made its rounds Halloween weekend, sending his fans into a text messaging and googling frenzy. This is the second death rumor involving the rapper; during the Summer, a rumor that his child was killed in a car accident also circulated. These rumors travel like lightning, and they chip away at the trust many had in Internet journalism.
I'm in no way saying this is the internet generation's Pentagon papers; this is far from it. But every time some bored person goes nuts with CSS stylesheets , the belief that there are reputable and safe internet sites wavers in the hearts and minds of young and impressionable people. Minds that are obviously already mushy enough to buy a million copies of a seemingly drunk man yodel into a mic and call it music are the same minds that aren't going to examine urls in a moment of panic. The page was cloned from a reputable BBC article called "Letter-bombing caretaker jailed." The fake page even had active links to email the story and print it.
When I saw the link to the "news story" I didn't believe it for a moment. The url, http://kineticnorth.com/BBCNews/?NewsGUID=fcf016e0-c92b-445a-aab0-735fdcecf0a3, was not even hosted on the BBC site. The fact that the story also strangely popped up across the pond before being plastered all over CNN didn't seem too likely. Of course I'm not a 14-year-old-girl who sees the Internet as a homework machine and mystical portal that somehow makes Facebook happen. A more casual user might not look twice at the url of a site, they just see they were sent a link that said "OMG THEY SHOT WEEZY OMGZ" and, as far as they know, the man plastered on their locker is no more. Grief and panic ensues and they express it the only way they know how: texting everyone they know.
It's easy to spread a rumor, and anyone that survived high school knows that if enough people believe a lie, in a way it momentarily becomes the truth. When someone plays a "prank" using news websites, they are directly attacking the credibility of not only that organization they are taking a swipe at; they are attacking journalism on the internet as a whole. A virgining of an entity as the Internet is, there are many that tend to find information found in a newspaper or on TV is more believable.
It is a logical conclusion, after all. We have been reared with the traditional producer/consumer model of information. Something happens, a journalist writes the story and it's broadcast through the one-way street of television, radio and print. The Internet is a completely different monster. We have blog sites like the Huffington Post blurring the line between blog and news, and sites like Youtube where a CNN story might not get as many views as a teen performing an interesting trick in their living room. So when something with a familiar logo pops up, some automatically assume that they are seeing a trusted producer, even when they are actually just looking at the handy work of a crafty netizen like themselves, a person with no access to "privileged information" and really is just looking for some "lulz".
It could almost make one paranoid. Whom can you trust in a situation where the same medium that's expected to give you trusted information is overrun with content not concerned with journalistic integrity. This is further complicated in situations like a hoax. A hoax like the death of Lil' Wayne has only one objective: to deceive you. How can you check facts on the Internet when the very sites that are lifted above the others are tainted? It's enough to make one log off and pick up a newspaper…
R U BEING PWND?
Sure signs its a hoax:
-Check the url. If it came from BBC.com , but the url doesn't look like other BBC stories, it's most likely a hoax.
- Are the links working? Most pranksters don't take the time to link to current stories, since it's very time consuming. Click around the site to see if the links are dummies.
-Check the Who is information of the site. Research who is presenting and spreading the information.
-If a celeb is reported dead, check their publicist page (it's usually linked to the celebs homepage). Death announcements are usually officially made to alert the press.
- Google! Google any and all names the article mentions.
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