Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Rough Draft of video on Anonymous and the media
Here is my rough draft. I need to redo a lot of things - I'm re-doing the voiceovers and probably doing the video on After Effects rather than Vegas. Any feedback is appreciated, though.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
'Revised' script for video (sure to change)
Inundated by pop culture and TV commercials, many in Generation Y , especially technologically savvy males, shared a general disdain and cynicism for the 21st Century culture.
[video flipping through channels of MTV, VH1]
On image boards, especially the “anything goes” board /b/, soon ballooned into a haven for teenagers and 20 somethings who needed a place to release their emotions anonymously or look for entertainment, advice or a sense of community, among others.
Contributors to 4chan formed their own variation of language, broke away from the rules of society by shedding their identity and the ideas and opinions that were held back from the daily grind in the physical world were unleashed on the image board. More often than not, posts were usually in a sarcastic and playful attitude meant to produce the most “lulz,” a term synonymous with appeasement or laughter.
[screen videos of 4chan, excerpt from interview]
The board turned into a center of a quasi-counter-culture movement in which the group began to take actions against celebrities, celebrity wanna-bes or groups that misused the Internet. These actions ranged from sending 10 pizzas to people’s houses, prank calling cell phones, posting flashing images on a support message board for people with epilepsy and posting messages on Oprah’s website claiming to be part of a global pedophile network that is raping children everywhere.
[screenshots of raids, epilepsy screen shot and Oprah video]
The attacks never garnered much media attention and the board basically was unknown to much of society. Then, in January 2008, a video was posted on YouTube that showed Tom Cruise talking about his religion, Scientology, among other topics. As the video gained popularity, the Church of Scientology tried to have the video removed from YouTube. This infuriated many contributors to 4chan and other anonymous message boards, and the raid on the Church of Scientology ensued.
[show Cruise video then it being cut off halfway through]
From January to April 2008, hundreds of news articles and broadcast reports were published about the conflict between Anonymous and the Church of Scientology.
[bombardment of broadcast and print reports]
These reports were mostly brief intros of the battle and the news media generally portrayed the Anonymous movement in the same prototype they had made for hackers of the 1990s and 80s and other youth rebellion movements. Though some journalists delved deep into Project Chanology and Anonymous, some labeled the group as “cyber-terrorists,” or called their actions hate crimes. They mostly dwelled on the many crude acts that ANonymous carried out.
[Fox 11 report and other misleading news reports showing the slime of Anon - also mix in some clips of actual Anon attacks]
These stories rarely, if ever, took the stance against Scientology, and the hundreds of comments following the news articles or videos often complained about the lack of reporting on Scientology’s supposedly shady activities. This inadequate reporting also extended to all Anonymous related activities.
[collage of video responses from Anon, interview quotes from Landers]
But they also got the word out about these shady activities because of the ability to comment on stories or videos. If the story missed these points, posters, possibly from Anonymous, posted their insights about Anonymous. Anonymous in a sense formed its own unprecedented form of news media through blogs, YouTube and Digg. This method of truth-seeking extended past Project Chanology and changed along with the news forms of media.
[screen capture of typing in blogger, Digging article, typing comments on story, interview quotes from Landers]
While Project Chanology has fallen considerably from the ire of the news media and Anonymous, the loosely organized group continued it's crude counter-culture behavior while also holding celebrities and businesses accountable on the Internets. Just recently, it is suspected that a prominent hacker, Weev, outed Amazon.com after several gay and lesbian literature and films were taken off it's top-selling lists. Though Amazon claims it was an internal error, many on the interwebs believe it was purposeful censoring.
[Amazon fail news reports, screenshots]
[video flipping through channels of MTV, VH1]
On image boards, especially the “anything goes” board /b/, soon ballooned into a haven for teenagers and 20 somethings who needed a place to release their emotions anonymously or look for entertainment, advice or a sense of community, among others.
Contributors to 4chan formed their own variation of language, broke away from the rules of society by shedding their identity and the ideas and opinions that were held back from the daily grind in the physical world were unleashed on the image board. More often than not, posts were usually in a sarcastic and playful attitude meant to produce the most “lulz,” a term synonymous with appeasement or laughter.
[screen videos of 4chan, excerpt from interview]
The board turned into a center of a quasi-counter-culture movement in which the group began to take actions against celebrities, celebrity wanna-bes or groups that misused the Internet. These actions ranged from sending 10 pizzas to people’s houses, prank calling cell phones, posting flashing images on a support message board for people with epilepsy and posting messages on Oprah’s website claiming to be part of a global pedophile network that is raping children everywhere.
[screenshots of raids, epilepsy screen shot and Oprah video]
The attacks never garnered much media attention and the board basically was unknown to much of society. Then, in January 2008, a video was posted on YouTube that showed Tom Cruise talking about his religion, Scientology, among other topics. As the video gained popularity, the Church of Scientology tried to have the video removed from YouTube. This infuriated many contributors to 4chan and other anonymous message boards, and the raid on the Church of Scientology ensued.
[show Cruise video then it being cut off halfway through]
From January to April 2008, hundreds of news articles and broadcast reports were published about the conflict between Anonymous and the Church of Scientology.
[bombardment of broadcast and print reports]
These reports were mostly brief intros of the battle and the news media generally portrayed the Anonymous movement in the same prototype they had made for hackers of the 1990s and 80s and other youth rebellion movements. Though some journalists delved deep into Project Chanology and Anonymous, some labeled the group as “cyber-terrorists,” or called their actions hate crimes. They mostly dwelled on the many crude acts that ANonymous carried out.
[Fox 11 report and other misleading news reports showing the slime of Anon - also mix in some clips of actual Anon attacks]
These stories rarely, if ever, took the stance against Scientology, and the hundreds of comments following the news articles or videos often complained about the lack of reporting on Scientology’s supposedly shady activities. This inadequate reporting also extended to all Anonymous related activities.
[collage of video responses from Anon, interview quotes from Landers]
But they also got the word out about these shady activities because of the ability to comment on stories or videos. If the story missed these points, posters, possibly from Anonymous, posted their insights about Anonymous. Anonymous in a sense formed its own unprecedented form of news media through blogs, YouTube and Digg. This method of truth-seeking extended past Project Chanology and changed along with the news forms of media.
[screen capture of typing in blogger, Digging article, typing comments on story, interview quotes from Landers]
While Project Chanology has fallen considerably from the ire of the news media and Anonymous, the loosely organized group continued it's crude counter-culture behavior while also holding celebrities and businesses accountable on the Internets. Just recently, it is suspected that a prominent hacker, Weev, outed Amazon.com after several gay and lesbian literature and films were taken off it's top-selling lists. Though Amazon claims it was an internal error, many on the interwebs believe it was purposeful censoring.
[Amazon fail news reports, screenshots]
Advanced script for final video
Here is a more detailed mapping of my video. It took awhile so I could put together this little video piece using Flash. Let me know if this theme and style could fit well with the topic.
- Stick guy watching collage of pop-glam, getting angry
- guy sending a pizza to someone, saying lulz
- guy watching tom cruise video on computer, getting infuriated
- rapid fire of news reports
> stories - CNN, Oprah, other report - moving news clips
- reporter not understanding Anonymous
> reporter typing stupid stuff about Anon
> Fox 11
- reporters having trouble with new media
> how do i use this thing (camera)?
> where can i find this twitter thing?
- stick guy typing on blogger, typing comment on story and show youtube videos of responses
(many of these will have voiceovers and interview clips as well)Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Initial rundown of video about news media and Anonymous
Anonymous formed as a counter-culture movement against the pop-glam culture of the 21st Century. They started by pulling pranks on celebrities like sending pizzas and prank calling them.
VIDEO - voiceover, video of pranks mixed with press reports, Oprah clips, maybe Matthew Milan quote
Media and general interest piqued after Tom Cruise - Scientology video incident
VIDEO - voiceover, clips of video reports with flood of multiple screenshots of stories on the conflict
Media did not portray Anonymous in a good light usually - didn't really understand motives behind actions
VIDEO - Fox 11 report with response from Anonymous (youtube clips) Landers quote
Media's misunderstanding of culture dates back a few decades. Never understood hackers of 80s and 90s. Until recently, MSM failed to realize importance of the Internet and new media
VIDEO - voiceover, media clips about MSM's failure to embrace technology and understand it
Anonymous found ways to maneuver past MSM to get their version of the truth out. w/ comments, Youtube and Digg.
VIDEO - show youtube clips, screenshots of comments and # of comments, Landers quote
VIDEO - voiceover, video of pranks mixed with press reports, Oprah clips, maybe Matthew Milan quote
Media and general interest piqued after Tom Cruise - Scientology video incident
VIDEO - voiceover, clips of video reports with flood of multiple screenshots of stories on the conflict
Media did not portray Anonymous in a good light usually - didn't really understand motives behind actions
VIDEO - Fox 11 report with response from Anonymous (youtube clips) Landers quote
Media's misunderstanding of culture dates back a few decades. Never understood hackers of 80s and 90s. Until recently, MSM failed to realize importance of the Internet and new media
VIDEO - voiceover, media clips about MSM's failure to embrace technology and understand it
Anonymous found ways to maneuver past MSM to get their version of the truth out. w/ comments, Youtube and Digg.
VIDEO - show youtube clips, screenshots of comments and # of comments, Landers quote
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Research Project paper
The technology knowledge gap between 18-30 year olds and their parents is sometimes as vast as the Internet. In the real, physical world, people of Generation Y, especially those immersed in Internet culture, there are few places for them to fit. But in a world where there is no identity, no religion and few guidelines, they are allowed to be what they could never be in real life. This is just the reason Web sites like 4chan and Encyclopedia Dramatica exist.
Based on similar image boards in Japan, 4chan started in 2003 as a simple image board that allowed people to rate and comment on them. Anonymity was virtually required, allowing posters to say what they felt and rate the images not on who posted them but on the actual message.
The image board, especially it’s “anything goes” board /b/, soon ballooned into a haven for teenagers and 20 somethings who needed a place to release their emotions anonymously or look for entertainment, advice or a sense of community, among others.
Contributors to 4chan formed their own variation of language, broke away from the rules of society by shedding their identity and the ideas and opinions that were held back from the daily grind in the physical world were unleashed on the image board. Though some great thoughts came from this collaboration of anonymous minds, much of the conversations were menial, disrespectful and sometimes disturbing. More often than not though, posts were usually in a sarcastic and playful attitude meant to produce the most “lulz,” a term synonymous with appeasement or laughter.
Inundated by pop culture and TV commercials, most of the anonymous posters shared a general disdain and cynicism for the 21st Century culture. The board turned into a center of a quasi-counter-culture movement in which the group began to take actions against celebrities or celebrity wanna-bes. These actions ranged from sending 10 pizzas to people’s houses, prank calling their cell phones, posting flashing images on a support message board for people with epilepsy and posting messages on Oprah’s website claiming to be part of a global pedophile network that is raping children everywhere.
"As the Internet has grown in popularity, a disturbing phenomenon has occurred: Everyone thinks they are special. We have news for you... You aren't special. You are a mindless horde of filth, traversing the universe on a small ball of dirt. … We are Anonymous, and our numbers are vast. We are everywhere, and we never forgive. Wherever someone takes themselves too seriously, we will be there. Wherever someone has an inflated ego, we will be there. We will do it through madness. And we will remove you from the high place you have built yourself."
— Posted on an anonymous website after an anonymous attack on Second Life
The attacks never garnered much media attention and the board basically was unknown to much of society. Then, in January 2008, a video was posted on YouTube that showed Tom Cruise talking about his religion, Scientology, among other topics. As the video gained popularity, the Church of Scientology tried to have the video removed from YouTube. This infuriated many contributors to 4chan and other anonymous message boards, and the raid on the Church of Scientology ensued.
The attacks were rarely carried on by the same people, but the cause was trumpeted on the message boards and other posters stepped up to continue the attacks. These members of Anonymous began using many of the same tactics they had used previously, which included voicemails with fake death threats and hacking the Church of Scientology Web site. But the attacks soon turned more peaceful after a self-proclaimed critic of Scientology Mark Bunker told Anonymous to tone the attacks down and do more traditional protests. They listened to the man who became known as “Wise Beard Man” and began protesting outside Scientology churches and handing out flyers that outlined reasons why Anonymous thought the religion was a cult and did not deserve a tax exemption. By the time this happened the raid had gained considerable media attention and came to be known as Project Chanology.
To many regular posters on anonymous message boards, Project Chanology had slipped out of the hands of Anonymous. As an anonymous wiki page for Project Chanology states, the movement “escalated into a series of legal protests perpetrated by college students, moralfags, and activists who are not familiar with Anonymous or chan culture.” Most posters on Anonymous message boards are labeled fags. New posters are labeled newfags, and moralfags are usually more sensitive posters. Because of the increase of “moralfaggotry” it was reportedly labeled as fail – which means the movement was not a success.
According to the wiki entry, the undoing of Project Chanology came toward the beginning of the movement when project members, mostly Anonymous members, began to recruit on a larger scale at colleges and on social media like YouTube and Facebook.
This split of opinion about Project Chanology represents much of the culture of 4chan and other anonymous message boards. Members of one message board try to shut down other message boards often because of difference of opinion or what they see as disrespect. These attacks even happen within 4chan’s site. In a continually individualistic society in which the Internet has replaced many of the physical means of communication and identity, Anonymous is near the apex. They have no real alliances or friends and they can roam wherever they please on message boards and elsewhere on the Internet without any fear of societal pressure to do what is right or cool.
The Anonymous manifesto states that, “Anonymous is legion and when one falls another shall take his place.” For all the claims Scientology has made about ridding the world of Anonymous and all the lawsuits church members have started because of Anonymous’ actions against Scientology, they have done little to dwindle the number of Anonymous /i/nsurgency members on the Internet or Project Chanology protesters on the sidewalks. Protests still take place all across the world in major cities every month with considerable turnouts. Though the news media has mainly forgotten the Anonymous movement, it still continues. According to Alexa.com 4chan’s /b/, Encyclopedia Dramatica and others receive as many viewers as they have since October 2008.
News media still pays a little attention to Anonymous and Project Chanology. News organizations cover the occasional Scientology protest and KESQ-TV from Palm Springs, Calif., recently aired a series questioning the motives of Scientology and highlighting its battle with Anonymous. The series was popular, with thousands of views on YouTube and hundreds of comments on YouYube’s and KESQ’s Web sites. Mentions of Anonymous actions are also still prominent on news aggregation sites like Digg. Though coverage of Anonymous has dwindled, the loosely affiliated group is still strong, albeit without a higher profile than early last year.
Based on similar image boards in Japan, 4chan started in 2003 as a simple image board that allowed people to rate and comment on them. Anonymity was virtually required, allowing posters to say what they felt and rate the images not on who posted them but on the actual message.
"While it is possible to use Internet nicknames on 4chan, it is generally frowned upon, so posts listing the author as "Anonymous" are the norm, especially in the site's chaotic "random" forum. Anonymous became the name for the users of the site as a whole--a sort of hive mind of popular opinion."
The image board, especially it’s “anything goes” board /b/, soon ballooned into a haven for teenagers and 20 somethings who needed a place to release their emotions anonymously or look for entertainment, advice or a sense of community, among others.
Contributors to 4chan formed their own variation of language, broke away from the rules of society by shedding their identity and the ideas and opinions that were held back from the daily grind in the physical world were unleashed on the image board. Though some great thoughts came from this collaboration of anonymous minds, much of the conversations were menial, disrespectful and sometimes disturbing. More often than not though, posts were usually in a sarcastic and playful attitude meant to produce the most “lulz,” a term synonymous with appeasement or laughter.
Inundated by pop culture and TV commercials, most of the anonymous posters shared a general disdain and cynicism for the 21st Century culture. The board turned into a center of a quasi-counter-culture movement in which the group began to take actions against celebrities or celebrity wanna-bes. These actions ranged from sending 10 pizzas to people’s houses, prank calling their cell phones, posting flashing images on a support message board for people with epilepsy and posting messages on Oprah’s website claiming to be part of a global pedophile network that is raping children everywhere.
"As the Internet has grown in popularity, a disturbing phenomenon has occurred: Everyone thinks they are special. We have news for you... You aren't special. You are a mindless horde of filth, traversing the universe on a small ball of dirt. … We are Anonymous, and our numbers are vast. We are everywhere, and we never forgive. Wherever someone takes themselves too seriously, we will be there. Wherever someone has an inflated ego, we will be there. We will do it through madness. And we will remove you from the high place you have built yourself."
— Posted on an anonymous website after an anonymous attack on Second Life
The attacks never garnered much media attention and the board basically was unknown to much of society. Then, in January 2008, a video was posted on YouTube that showed Tom Cruise talking about his religion, Scientology, among other topics. As the video gained popularity, the Church of Scientology tried to have the video removed from YouTube. This infuriated many contributors to 4chan and other anonymous message boards, and the raid on the Church of Scientology ensued.
The attacks were rarely carried on by the same people, but the cause was trumpeted on the message boards and other posters stepped up to continue the attacks. These members of Anonymous began using many of the same tactics they had used previously, which included voicemails with fake death threats and hacking the Church of Scientology Web site. But the attacks soon turned more peaceful after a self-proclaimed critic of Scientology Mark Bunker told Anonymous to tone the attacks down and do more traditional protests. They listened to the man who became known as “Wise Beard Man” and began protesting outside Scientology churches and handing out flyers that outlined reasons why Anonymous thought the religion was a cult and did not deserve a tax exemption. By the time this happened the raid had gained considerable media attention and came to be known as Project Chanology.
From January to April 2008, hundreds of news articles and broadcast reports were published about the conflict between Anonymous and the Church of Scientology.
These reports were mostly brief intros of the battle and the news media generally portrayed the Anonymous movement in the same prototype they had made for hackers of the 1990s and 80s and other youth rebellion movements. Though some journalists delved deep into Project Chanology and Anonymous, some labeled the group as “cyber-terrorists,” or called their actions hate crimes. Probably the most famous of these reports came from Fox 11 in Los Angeles, which called Anonymous members “hackers on steroids.” Reports like the one from Fox 11 and Oprah soon became the brunt of many jokes on the message boards and parody YouTube videos.
A general trend seemed to emerge from the coverage of Project Chanology. Anonymous was either labeled as the enemy or given prototypical labels, like in the Fox 11 report, or the reporters would not take sides and mention both sides of the argument. These stories rarely, if ever, took the stance against Scientology, and the hundreds of comments following the news articles or videos often complained about the lack of reporting on Scientology’s supposedly shady activities. But they also got the word out about these shady activities because of the ability to comment on stories or videos. If the story missed these points, posters, possibly from Anonymous, posted their insights about Anonymous.
As the popularity of Project Scientology grew, the movement turned away from its mission for maximum lulz to more of an actual protest. As one of the Scientology protesters told Chris Landers of the Baltimore City Paper, “We are Anon, and we are interwebs superheroes. Who if not us will take on this abomination of faith and capitalism? What would JFK say? He would probably say something like `Hey Marilyn, its not gonna blow itself.' But he would probably also want us to do this."
These reports were mostly brief intros of the battle and the news media generally portrayed the Anonymous movement in the same prototype they had made for hackers of the 1990s and 80s and other youth rebellion movements. Though some journalists delved deep into Project Chanology and Anonymous, some labeled the group as “cyber-terrorists,” or called their actions hate crimes. Probably the most famous of these reports came from Fox 11 in Los Angeles, which called Anonymous members “hackers on steroids.” Reports like the one from Fox 11 and Oprah soon became the brunt of many jokes on the message boards and parody YouTube videos.
A general trend seemed to emerge from the coverage of Project Chanology. Anonymous was either labeled as the enemy or given prototypical labels, like in the Fox 11 report, or the reporters would not take sides and mention both sides of the argument. These stories rarely, if ever, took the stance against Scientology, and the hundreds of comments following the news articles or videos often complained about the lack of reporting on Scientology’s supposedly shady activities. But they also got the word out about these shady activities because of the ability to comment on stories or videos. If the story missed these points, posters, possibly from Anonymous, posted their insights about Anonymous.
As the popularity of Project Scientology grew, the movement turned away from its mission for maximum lulz to more of an actual protest. As one of the Scientology protesters told Chris Landers of the Baltimore City Paper, “We are Anon, and we are interwebs superheroes. Who if not us will take on this abomination of faith and capitalism? What would JFK say? He would probably say something like `Hey Marilyn, its not gonna blow itself.' But he would probably also want us to do this."
To many regular posters on anonymous message boards, Project Chanology had slipped out of the hands of Anonymous. As an anonymous wiki page for Project Chanology states, the movement “escalated into a series of legal protests perpetrated by college students, moralfags, and activists who are not familiar with Anonymous or chan culture.” Most posters on Anonymous message boards are labeled fags. New posters are labeled newfags, and moralfags are usually more sensitive posters. Because of the increase of “moralfaggotry” it was reportedly labeled as fail – which means the movement was not a success.
According to the wiki entry, the undoing of Project Chanology came toward the beginning of the movement when project members, mostly Anonymous members, began to recruit on a larger scale at colleges and on social media like YouTube and Facebook.
This split of opinion about Project Chanology represents much of the culture of 4chan and other anonymous message boards. Members of one message board try to shut down other message boards often because of difference of opinion or what they see as disrespect. These attacks even happen within 4chan’s site. In a continually individualistic society in which the Internet has replaced many of the physical means of communication and identity, Anonymous is near the apex. They have no real alliances or friends and they can roam wherever they please on message boards and elsewhere on the Internet without any fear of societal pressure to do what is right or cool.
The Anonymous manifesto states that, “Anonymous is legion and when one falls another shall take his place.” For all the claims Scientology has made about ridding the world of Anonymous and all the lawsuits church members have started because of Anonymous’ actions against Scientology, they have done little to dwindle the number of Anonymous /i/nsurgency members on the Internet or Project Chanology protesters on the sidewalks. Protests still take place all across the world in major cities every month with considerable turnouts. Though the news media has mainly forgotten the Anonymous movement, it still continues. According to Alexa.com 4chan’s /b/, Encyclopedia Dramatica and others receive as many viewers as they have since October 2008.
News media still pays a little attention to Anonymous and Project Chanology. News organizations cover the occasional Scientology protest and KESQ-TV from Palm Springs, Calif., recently aired a series questioning the motives of Scientology and highlighting its battle with Anonymous. The series was popular, with thousands of views on YouTube and hundreds of comments on YouYube’s and KESQ’s Web sites. Mentions of Anonymous actions are also still prominent on news aggregation sites like Digg. Though coverage of Anonymous has dwindled, the loosely affiliated group is still strong, albeit without a higher profile than early last year.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
In-Class presentation notes
Here is my powerpoint from my in-class presentation. Though my focus has changed to more of an introduction of Anonymous through the eyes of the media, I will still take some points from this presentation.
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