There are various popular press ‘buzz words’ that are bound to gain attention. Charlie Brookers article in The Guardian a couple of weeks ago ‘Online POKER marketing could spell the NAKED end of VIAGRA journalism as we LOHAN know it’. Ooo sensationalist. And that is exactly his point.
In the last couple of hours I’ve been forwarded the noisy foray of commentary on ‘the shank’, the not-so-super superpoke on Facebook. If you don’t know ‘shank’ is the street slang to stab someone. The word on the press street that include, The Telegraph, Sky and Channel 4 shouts are that Facebook is responsible for knife crime. Well masked by the story are the complaints by Facebook users from months ago about the shank poke. One of the discussion board topics ‘Campaign to remove the Shank poke’ had already gained momentum. Although, reading some of the discussion comments this was with surprisingly muted support as this became conflated with freedom of expression discussion rather than 'good' taste.
Attempts in the press to lay blame at Facebook’s door are over the top. These mask many of the generational contexts of socialisation, particularly in terms of youth crime. The circumstances of a knife-crime ‘culture’ and value orientations lack the consistent definition and careful consideration of potential causalities. This means the relevant constructs of ‘good taste’ become entangled with different social effects, opinions and assessments from parents, politicians and the young people themselves. An attitude of ‘our generation’ versus ‘their generation’. Something that was bought out by Rowena Davis's article in The Guardian, How can our politicians understand blade culture?
'Young people' are just as shocked and concerned about knife crime. Some are even in the unhappy contingent of knowing the victims. There is suport to challenge this trend. Already there have been organised demonstrations and yes even Facebook groups such as the: ‘Stop our young people killing each other’.
In short, knife crime is a serious issue, but it’s not Facebook’s fault.
8 comments:
Slow news over the summer in the Uk so you get this lazy journalism fueled by PR in some cases. No harm in facebook as being seen as The SNS compared to BeBo etc
@ Anon,
worse than slow news, its slack journalism. And shows deliberately provocative and inflatory expression. Sadly this masks the 'real' issues and underlying agenda.
Still if anything i've just contributed to said slack journalism and related site traffic.
:-P
interesting topic. I usually read here, but have little time to comment. Sally Walker also posted on this http://sallywalker.me.uk/2008/07/facebook-to-blame-for-knife-killing-spree/
Agree that Facebook is not responsible for knife crime, but they do have a responsibility to manage the site within the bounds of (as you say) 'good taste'.
thanks for the post.
I like the added dimension of 'youth' that you have included in your post. Does using Facebook make me 'youthful'?
@ ceillia,
Yes have now read Sally's post. And i hear what's she's saying. bullying in such a way is offensive and should be treated accordingly. I think that the point that her commentator was making was taken out of context. as a poke between friends, no matter how bad taste this may come across to the rest of us, the action is intended only in jest. of course the trickier situation of how one interpretation is taken from sender and receiver of such applications is more complex. One person's poke is another's outrageous and offensive prod.
@ Youth,
i'm not sure about the 'anti-aging' claims of using FB, but hey you do get to post whatever images you like - so there's an element of contained 'agedness' and youthful longevity...
hmm think you've inspired another post...
And thatll keep me young!
;-)
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