fishers, surfers and casters

On 21 December, Richard Lawson posted an “article” on gawker.com, where he embeds a YouTube video of a child who throws a tantrum over receiving books for Christmas, alongside a Wii console and other toys. In the video the child is watched giving his best argument for why books should never be given at Christmas time, and his parents are heard calmly offering admonishment, while obviously entertained by the child’s antics.

Lawson’s argument is far less entertaining, and arguably less eloquent. He calls the child an “asshole”, an example of a country that is going dumb, a “jerk”. In the comment thread that follows, one reader wonders if a “retroactive abortion” is warranted.

In the fledgling digital age, there are some of us that lament the demise of a literate population, the slow death of a rich culture of words and their publishing. Every effort is made by them to remind us that worlds of imagination, which can only exist in the minds of readers, are sacred and must be preserved, and are under threat by the Internet and its attractive devices.

Yet I believe that a better case against the Internet lies here: where a private family event is made public, not for the enjoyment of Internet users, but as a sacrificial lamb for public moralising. And where it is deemed acceptable that a three-year old child is publicly bullied by so-called online journalists and their readers.

I’m reminded of both Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, cautionary tales regarding the future of a society that delights in the public shaming of others. These books come from the same country as this posted article. Maybe Richard Lawson should do some more reading.

At CMRC this week I saw two presentations on religious videos and personalities. The first was by Rianne Subijanto and Nabil Echchaibi from the University of Colorado (US) and explored the rise of the “TV Muslim preacher” in Egypt and Indonesia. The second was by Denis Bekkering from the University of Waterloo (Canada) and focussed on the rise, fall and slow rise again of a US web-based Christian evagelist.

Echchaibi and Subijanto’s presentation started with the question “How do Muslims relate to their religion daily through mass media?” and used examples from YouTube, religious channels, and even a reality TV show called Imam Muda, where contestants battle it out to be the best rookie Imam, and the winner is ordained. They made the following conclusions:

1. That Islam on TV exists in struggles between modern/moderate and orthodox/islamist struggles on the political level and in the public sphere
2. That the television personality acts as a religious brand with which viewers/users find a connection and through which they can express and work on their religious identity
3. Television allows for the rethinking of religious imagery and symbolism, including even the way the Imam dresses
4. It appeared to me that the videos borrowed much from prosperity model of (tele-)evangelism. The presenters noted that the producers of these videos and channels borrowed business models from American televangelists, however the new “messages” found in the videos also reflected local preaching styles and some traditions.

Bekkering’s presentation focussed on the struggle to maintain authority in the face of protest in YouTube. Focussing on recent videos of an American evangelist, who a few years ago lost much popularity after his extra-marital affair was exposed, Bekkering discusses how the evangelist’s ministry endeavours to prevent and block protest on his site through the active moderation of comments on his youTube page, and the editing of videos where protestation appears in the filming of his ministry events.

I found in both presentations a great comparison between “viewers” and “users” in the negotiation of religious text, meaning and authority in videos in both platforms. I also saw a great potential, which was touched upon, in the examination of aesthetic approaches to the construction of religious authority (how scenery is used to promote the authority of the presenters in the videos, and how an “image” is created for the promotion of religious branding). I would like to talk with them more about it.

Stumbled across this just now. New data (with some sources cited, but not many), on the Internet in the US and for the rest of us, from the end of 2009: