Danger is Subjective.

In a class that elucidates specifically why the Internet democratizes our experiences in this brave new world, I wasn't sure what a unit on Internet Crime would yield. I anticipated the tempering of some of the more outlandish fears and perhaps a cautionary tale, which was the bulk of the material, but I was very surprised at some of the more sophisticated connections the texts made. The section in "Victims, Villans, and Vixens" about the power of the news media in shaping public perception seemed very akin to the beginning of the "High Tech or High Risk," in that they both highlight that the news media uses scare tactics to bring out the latent fears held by white, middle class America. It recalled for me white missing woman syndrome, that the way the media prioritizes what is important to portray as urgent news usually caters to what the privileged middle class deems appropriate (in the latter article, they illustrate this with the discussion about the PSA).

In codifying Internet crime as absolute truth in such a way as to make certain corners of the internet, such as chat rooms, completely synonymous with danger, I believe that shows like "To Catch a Predator" are capitalizing on the mass hysteria engendered by giving young people, especially girls, the ability to seek out agency in this cutting-edge fashion. Girls are always being portrayed as "at risk," and if they are ever on the other end of an unsavory story, the media is very quick to jump on them as the risk, in a way that I don't believe is gender-neutral. The sensationalized accounts of "cooking up drugs" come across gossipy, in that it highlights the failings of a female subject as so much more egregious than a male of similar budding criminal stature, as made obvious by the fact that it warranted media coverage at all. Girls aren't supposed to do that, right? They're supposed to be above such low pursuits, and if not, it is cause for serious concern, as one bad apple could spoil the whole barrel. Or something. I don't know, I find the whole perspective illogical. Of course, while girls are the subject of this class, the advent of technology as a contribution to risky behavior is not isolated only to them. Videogames and certain music were brought to task after Columbine, as though cultural products can be blamed instead of a system that summarily failed its troubled teens. The media contributed to this hysteria in a not at all negligible fashion, and this should be noted when examining how it constructs the relationship between girls and similar mediums.

One thing these readings illuminated for me that I had never before considered was that girls rarely offer their side in these stories, that their accounts, even in the form of first-person narrative, are always skewed by the media's heavy-handed slant. If we were, for example, to have a discussion on television about the lack of danger that the Internet poses, if used with a measured amount of caution, it would hardly be newsworthy and would be relegated to a channel or time-slot where the message would hardly be received. It is within the drama that the story resides, even if it must be grossly exaggerated to the point of fabrication.