{"id":3750,"date":"2021-04-21T12:53:11","date_gmt":"2021-04-21T16:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/?p=3750"},"modified":"2021-04-27T08:45:58","modified_gmt":"2021-04-27T12:45:58","slug":"white-supremacy-isnt-new-it-just-moved-online-panelists-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/2021\/04\/white-supremacy-isnt-new-it-just-moved-online-panelists-say\/","title":{"rendered":"White Supremacy Isn\u2019t New, It Just Moved Online, Panelists Say"},"content":{"rendered":"

The consumption of media in the age of doom scrolling, cancel culture and life through a screen spiked during the past year. As of January 2021, there are 319 million new internet users, according to a <\/span>We Are Social<\/span><\/a> global report. Last week, academics gathered to discuss how to combat the rise of extremist groups online.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people in my field of sociology didn\u2019t see [the internet] as a big game changer, but there were a few of us who thought it was a big shift,\u201d said author and Hunter sociology professor Jessie Daniels.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The internet changed how people connect with each other and the news. More than eight in 10 United States adults get their news from a smartphone, computer or tablet, according to a recent <\/span>Pew Research Center<\/span><\/a> survey. College students specifically spend about eight to 10 hours a day on their phones, <\/span>another study<\/span><\/a> found.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe 1994 release of the Mosaic browser meant everybody could log onto the internet,\u201d Daniels said. \u201cThat also included white supremacists.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Professor and popular music philosopher Robin James said there needs to be pushback on the idea that white supremacy and racism is new. Instead of the internet giving life to those movements, it really helped them to connect and gather in a way they hadn\u2019t before. The attack on the Capitol in January was partially organized by people on Facebook. Twitter, along with other major social media sites, banned former President Donald J. Trump from their platforms in an attempt to stop future riots.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes online media has the opposite effect. All of the panelists work in public scholarship which refers to a way of sharing knowledge with communities in an accessible way. John Biewen, creator of the <\/span>\u201cSeeing White\u201d<\/span><\/a> podcast, said he was \u201cplunged\u201d into humanities through podcasting. Unlike traditional radio segments, podcasting allows for multi-episode exploration on topics that may be more involved. \u201cSeeing White\u201d uses historical and present day examples to explain when and why race was created.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGive people the information, tools and understanding to help us figure out together who we want to be and how we need to change to get there,\u201d Biewen said on what he hopes his work will do.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the question and answer portion of the Zoom event, an audience member asked what it was like for women in academia and on the internet. Besides Biewen and moderator Philip Ewell, the panel was mostly women. Musicologist and writer Imani Danielle Mosley said her gender usually took a backseat when it came to criticisms in her work and online.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt has always been centered around my Blackness,\u201d she said. \u201cAs if I, as a Black person, do not have access or the ability to talk about a cultural product that is so rooted in whiteness.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the last six months, Mosley has been writing on Black Lives Matter protests and the \u201cact of witnessing.\u201d She defined this as intentionally interacting with or watching something online. Sometimes witnessing happens unintentionally. Mosley recalled a time she saw the Christchurch mass shooting on Facebook live involuntarily. Another example is last summer\u2019s viral video of the murder of George Floyd.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou used to have to wait for the news to tell you about a subject,\u201d Mosley said. \u201cNow, not only can you search out the news yourself, it sometimes happens to you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The panelists left the audience with some tips on how to enjoy media while still looking at it through a critical lens. They said it\u2019s important to know when to disengage and disconnect, as well as setting boundaries. To stop unintentional witnessing, Mosley recommended turning off video autoplay on apps.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

New York Times opinion writer Margaret O\u2019Mara pointed out that algorithms are meant to either enrage or enflame the emotions of those using them to keep them on screen.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe rise of the internet created a fire hose of information and a hunger for content,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Academics discuss how social media amplifies and threatens democracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":3752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[374,14,413,93],"class_list":["post-3750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-blm","tag-hunter-college","tag-public-scholars","tag-roosevelt-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3750"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3755,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3750\/revisions\/3755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}