The medium is the (cruel) message
Reality television and online trolls
11/29/11
John Cochran from Survivor: South Pacific. Photo by CBS
As I write this article in the library, I am surrounded by at least three computers that have Facebook up. Most people use it to creep on their friends or to play Tetris (admit it; I’ve seen you). People also use it for random discussion groups either with family or friends, or those who share a common interest. But what happens if those common interests go too far? Enter the minor competitive reality TV star (Survivor, The Amazing Race, The Apprentice, and to a more ‘reality TV-like’ extent, Big Brother.) Those who go on these shows are not famous enough to where their popularity reaches beyond Facebook’s 5,000 friends limit, but yet have enough fame for the hardcore fans. But any group of hardcore fans also carries along the hardcore haters. And that’s where one of Facebook’s lesser-known faults is exposed.
Yes, there are people who will friend a reality star just so they can trash their wall for the sole purpose of ensuring the fans and the star itself will read it before the troll is blocked and deleted from the star’s Facebook. This dates back to Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains when fans were divided between Sandra and Russell. Since then, reality TV freaks have tweaked the method of attack and are using Facebook’s fullest potential.
This past summer, Big Brother 13 aired a season with half returning players and half newbies. That means the returning players have an established hardcore fan base entering the house, and the other half battle for valuable camera time which is at the discretion of the editors to build a reputation. Therefore, popular returnees (Jeff and Jordan/Jordeff) indirectly caused one of the biggest cyber bullying victims in Shelly Moore (a newbie). Why? Because Shelly ultimately betrayed Jordeff midway through the season, as well as joining in on the insults that are always being hurled throughout the house. Unfortunately, Jordeff’s hardcore fan base reacted to this, and because Shelly Moore was a newbie and since one does not have internet access in the house, the insults would be able to float around on Facebook much longer than one should. This led to the creation of an ‘America Hates Shelly Moore’ fan base, a page that consisted of ten thousand (yes, that many are crazy about BB) people to post threatening mental and bodily harm comments, Shelly’s real address, Facebook page, a number for Child Protective Services to have Shelly’s child picked up, and a barrage of insults. Big Brother blogs would encourage participation into this group, and any resistance to the group was met with insults, threats, and accusations of being in support of Shelly’s abusiveness.
However, this group taught how much people can truly get away with on Facebook. Fast forward to the present. In episode eight of Survivor: South Pacific, Survivor nerd and all-around challenge failure John Cochran was featured betraying his tribemates because he claimed they bullied him. So what happens?
In a twist of irony, many viewers go to Cochran’s Twitter and Facebook pages with numerous insults and threats on his pages. Yep, they say, “you weren’t being bullied Cochran you ******”. So if his tribemates really weren’t bullying him, the viewers certainly made up for it.
Why has the bullying been as charged as it is? Fellow betrayed tribemate Whitney Duncan, who is an established reality TV persona thanks to her fifth place finish in Nashville Star, openly encourages the name-calling of Cochran on her page and how he is a ‘disgusting human being’ and his nickname of ‘Cockroach’ which she coined long ago on the island. Oh, and factor in beloved (not by me) 3-time super swimmer Ozzy Lusth as another he betrayed, and you wind up with Ozzy’s fans taking to the trolling world and berating Cochran.
So where does a responsibility of this lie? The editors who cast characters repeatedly who will have their fans overreact to any move they don’t like? The players themselves for being ‘backstabbers’? Facebook and Twitter for not policing and banning accounts? Or the fans themselves for letting their lives be consumed by competitive reality television?
2 comments
lola on Dec 9, 2011 at 5:57am
Ok really? I don't want to make you feel bad here but did you miss the class that teaches you how to research before you write in Journalism School? I am sure you will not publish this, because it shows what little research you have done on this story. I am a member of the AHSM page on Facebook. At no time did we ever have 10,000 members, the high was a little over 8,000. It's a public page and yes, a few people did post some pretty awful things on the page...not only those against Shelly who it turned out were teens who were bored. Yes they also published her personal info, which by the way was all over the internet (and still is), as well as threats, all were deleted as soon as they were found. Shelly fans have also come there and posted even more shocking things. Those are deleted as well. Teens showed up and posted threats and Shelly's family contacted LE, however we wanted to know who this person was and we contacted Baton Rouge LE, who said they HAD NO REPORT OF IT. TMZ then reported the threats were not credible, yet the AHSM pages continues to get blamed for this. Insanity! The people that belong with the page are NOT HARDCORE Jeff and Jordan fans (it's called JEJO) they are all Big Brother fans, but they also love Rachel and some of the others. Yes there are jokes, but if you go public and do stupid things, you better have some thick skin and deal with it! It comes with the territory. With Shelly however it's a bit different, she decided to cover her horrid behavior by playing the victim and decided she would be a spokesperson for an anti bully campaign. We are all there NOT BECAUSE OF SOME GAME MOVE AND BETRAYING JEJO, and she will admit she knows it's not about Jeff as well. It is the way in which she bullied most of the house guests and now is passing herself off as that anti-bullying spokesperson. We cannot allow her to influence our children when we saw first hand the horrendous things she did to others. THAT is our objection. We have asked her to stop, we have asked her to apologize, she refuses both. We are open to dialog. Contact me if you want further info. No one is will to tell the truth about this, why?
DanB on Dec 15, 2011 at 10:50pm
Lola just wrote a single run-on paragraph rant about the "truth" regarding reality TV show contestants she's never met, who've never heard of her, on a show that ended months ago, in which she was never more than a passive viewer.
No, nothing crazy at all there.
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