VIDEO: College, Facebook & Viral Hate

[Ryan Goble]

Woza, this video is a doozy from Truman U in Missouri!  Would love to hear what people think about the university spokeswoman's comments at the end of the clip!

[Becky]

I agree with Ms. Gilchrist - University students are adults in their own right, and I don't believe that it is the University's duty to monitor student's actions online (only model appropriate social behaviour and inform them regarding the use/misuse of social media). I believe that the University should be involved only if the student: engaged in this behaviour on school grounds or at another student/faculty, or used school equipment to post their tweet.

The student should have known better, and I believe it was her own ignorance which caused her to get in that mess. IMO that tweet was above and beyond horrible. I don't blame activist groups for being upset.

[Ryan Goble]

Becky thank you for writing!! I wondered if this is what happens when you can't interpret the tone of South Park correctly?

[Becky]

Although I do not believe in blaming the media for social ignorances, I think that some shows focused on satire and irony are lost on those who do not understand their meaning. Unfortunately, bringing social ignorance to light through comedy and satire often times = people who are confused and then think it is socially acceptable to replicate or engage in similar behaviour.

[Ryan Goble]

Becky, I agree with you, it is always to simplistic to blame the media. I think sometimes the media becomes a rorschach for bigger pre-existing issues. In some ways, I'm quicker to blame us educators - for example, how can this be true - Research: Conservatives believe Colbert isn't joking - if students have an understanding of verbal, situational and dramatic irony, this wouldn't happen. Obviously a multitude of factors create these incidents, and certainly (hopefully) the one above is an outlier, but maybe we're dealing with bad English teachers (only half lol).