Public Message Boards
'The Sun' Newspaper Discussion Board
The topic - Big Brother's 'Charley' gets into a 'bitch fight' outside club
http://www.thesun.co.uk/mysun/comment/view.page?storyId=373532&submissionId=148254&nav=jump&pageNo=1
In this message board the users were dicussing the recent topic of Big Brother's outspoken housemate 'Charley' being beaten up outside a London nightclub.
There was a lot of 'flaming' in this message board as most of the British public does not like Charley as she is so outspoken and loud and therefore she has got a lot of bad press since she left the Big Brother house. Users were being extremely nasty and hateful towards the fight with Charley and were directing words to the girl who started the fight such as "Well done", and "about time someone gripped the self obsessed egotistical bitch".
People are obviously being very outspoken in how much they dislike Charley as they are doing it in the safety of an online forum where nobody can find out who they are, so they can be as nasty as they like and not face any consequences. In the real world i'm sure they would not have the nerve to say all these things to Charley's face as then they would have to pay for they comments straight away. None of the users gave they real names, instead using obscure nicknames such as "the boli" and "nic512". They give no clue into what this person is like, the only insight you have into these people is that they have extreme hostile feelings towards Charley.
The users also have the option of stating their full name and where they are from in a box next to their comment. However, some people choose to ignore it or only put the most basic answer they can, like just saying they are from England instead of stating excatly where. This again reinforces the fact that they feel safe by saying these flaming comments and knowing that nobody can find them or track them down. What do you think about this?
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5 comments:
Thats shocking that people can behave like that - RE saying well done to someone who attacked someone else. Im sure theres plenty of people in the world just like Charley, and Im pretty sure the world wouldnt want them all beaten up! Just shows the effects of the Media I think. By them saying things like that it makes other vicious people think that yeah lets all go attack her etc and that its ok to do so - when it isnt.
I agree with the whole by doing it online they dont have to face the consequences, not only that but they probably log off and forget about their 'concious' (excuse my spelling?!) I mean, would you be able to say something like that IRL and not feel guilty afterwards?
I think that it would be understandable to say that people who go online to abuyse people dont put their full names into the situation so they dont get personally flamed, like I said, by not being the 'real' them online - they can log off and forget whatevers happened? But if someone knows their real details etc, then it really is them being attacked and this might be taken as badly as what it would be if it was happening IRL? Do you agree with my way of looking at that?
It certainly highlights how nasty some people can be!
I think (and this probably isn't true for all!)people speaking their mind out loud is still considered rude and -even- a bit taboo. OK so what was said about Charley was just vicious, uneducated flaming; but at the same time perhaps people feel safe being able to forget what they had said and even better to do it anonymously.
Yes those of you who know me know i'm not afraid to speak my mind, but arguably a great percentage of the public are and find comfort in being able to have views that are perfectly acceptable but in our ridiculous 'politically correct' culture would be frowned upon (again this is not directly aimed at the Charley flaming!).
Perhaps not leaving your name on forums is one of the few freedoms of speech we have left?
yeah i agree with both of you. By not leaving their names it allows them the security of saying as many flaming comments as they want without any consequences. Whether someone is outspoken or not, i doubt someone would still write a nasty comment if they knew their real names and details were being shown to everyone.
Lauren,
It was useful to include the hyperlink, so that other readers of your blog could look at this and comment appropriately. Whilst I think that the comments you make here are relevant, perhaps you could have looked at another more 'academic' discussion board too, in order to contrast the type of comments put on here? As, the Sun Newspaper is not high quality and is quite sensationalist, which means this may be reflected in its message boards too? I think you're quite right in considering that message responses my well differ if people didn't have the option of anonymity.
All the best
Emma
yeah, people just do it online because theres not really any consequences, certainly not as severe as they would be in real life. I'm not too sure how it works, but I'm guessing if people say stuff bad enough and get reported they can be banned from certain forums? is that correct? but then i guess they can just create a different username.
i agree with lauren, I don't think ive come across any1 flaming in forums whose included their full name.
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