Does the Online Media Encourage Public Shaming?

 

If you’ve been anywhere online this past week – and even if you haven’t – you probably noticed that some hashtag chats got a little out of control, most notably the #AskELJames chat.
The chat, which was presented as a way for fans to talk with “50 Shades of Grey” author EL James about her latest book, was mostly populated by people who didn’t enjoy James’ writing or the subject matter of her books.


Now, before we go any further, let’s make one thing clear: This discussion is not about EL James writing ability or the subject matter of her books. We’re not going to bash any authors here or discuss why anyone feels the treatment she received is justified.That is all besides the point.
Instead, I’d like to talk about how the media portrayed the event.

Is Public Shaming Really “Beautiful” and “Hilarious?”

I saw a bit of the #AskELJames hashtag chat going down live and it wasn’t my cup of tea. I don’t enjoy online negativity and always feel for the person on the receiving end. I didn’t think the tweets were very funny because they were mocking EL James, but that is also just my opinion.
With this particular Twitter chat, participants were questioning James’ writing skills, making claims about her books, and calling her some very foul names.  While I don’t approve of or enjoy this sort of behavior, I mostly ignore it because this is the Internet and there are always going to be people who are unkind online.
However, when I started reading reports from blogs and online magazines, I couldn’t stay silent.
Everyone from Mashable to People were reporting on the chat and highlighting some of the tweets. This isn’t terrible in and of itself, but I found the way some blogs were reporting on the hashtag chat to be disturbing.
While many people viewed the majority of tweets as witty and clever, it didn’t escape me that the majority of the highlighted tweets that were being reported by the blogs were shaming the author.
Even worse, I was taken aback by how many blogs were taking pleasure in seeing EL James publicly shamed on Twitter.
Let’s look at some headlines:

From The Mary Sue:

From Hollywood Life:

From The Loop:

From Thought Catalog:

From Radio.com:

  From Oh No They Didn’t:

 From Daily Planet:

From Fennec & Friends:

From Newsgram:

From G.Q:

From Augustman.com:

Does Sharing “Mean Tweets” Encourage Online Nastiness and Public Shaming?

I shared the screenshots from the above referenced blogs because I wonder if it’s responsible to portray something negative as positive or humorous. Regardless of whether or not people were amused by the tweets, the goal with them is the same: public shaming.
If you look at the tweets that were highlighted on the different blogs that reported on the hashtags, almost all of them called James’ writing ability into play. Funny or not, they weren’t meant to be kind.
This isn’t the first time an online outlet reported “funny tweets” that weren’t directed towards someone in a positive manner. So, I wonder…does knowing that the media might highlight mean tweets encourage a mean response?
Do people call out famous people in an unkind way in order to receive retweets and perhaps a mention on a blog?
What is the media’s responsibility when anyone – famous or not – has a negative encounter online.
Finally, when it comes to public shaming, are headlines such as those mentioned above part of the problem?
It’s certainly worth thinking about.