The Darkside of Communication

In our last class, we talked about the dark side of computer mediated communication. This includes  trolling, cyberbullying, revenge porn, snuff films, and online romances that sour in person. While these topics are very different, they all disrupt the natural flow of the online world. One topic that really perplexed me was the snuff films. Snuff films are movies or short films that depict an actual murder of one or more people without the usual special effects. This term was first used in relation to the Charles Manson "family" murders according to Wikipedia. There are rumors that they made a snuff film before it was considered "cool". I think that this media form may do the most harm to our society.

Snuff films are not very recognized in today's media. They are looked at more as urban legends. I feel this is because the idea is so outrageous and it's hard to believe that people actually create media like that. It's also hard to believe that people take the time out of their day to watch and support the creators material.  There are many websites such as documentingreality.com and bestgore.com that provide users with gore videos and pictures.  Documentreality actually allow their users to upload and share videos themselves. There is a debate on whether or not this type of media is too unethical for the online world or if it's protected under the First Amendment. Another question that comes up is the state of mind the users are in. It's obvious how the creators of the content think about life but the consumers are even more questionable.

The consumers choose to search for the videos. They want to see someone being beheaded or burned to death. The comments under a video called "Self Immolation Suicide-She changed Her Mind" on documentreality are incredibly insensitive and made me a little uneasy about the world we live in. The video shows a young women and her friends standing on a water tower. The young women starts to pour gasoline on her body and eventually lights herself on fire. It takes about 30 seconds for someone to try to put the fire out. Her friends do not help her. One user said, "Man, when she came strolling down the steps, she looked like the Ghost Rider on his way down to fetch his bike! Funniest video I've seen in ages". Another said, "If that is a water tower then it'll take a lot of burning women to boil it up for a nice cup of tea!! LOL!!".  It appears that some people see video like this for a laugh. They think it's funny when people are being hurt or hurting themselves. The terrifying thing is that anyone could be watching. It could be a friend, family member or a teacher.

One very disturbing image can be found on bestgore where a woman is being roasted over a fire on a pole that would typically be used for pig roasting. The creators of bestgore promote freedom of expression. They feel that their website is important because it allows people to look at media that they are interested in. What if someone who is unstable wants to imitate something seen in a video? What if a child comes across the media and finds it a little too interesting and wants to try it? The debate about whether snuff films are a right to the public or a dangerous source of media will continue to go on.