When the last issue of The Eagle came out Thursday, something happened that has, to my somewhat humble knowledge, never happened before. Two pretty major Internet outlets posted pieces directly sourcing to something The Eagle had produced.
Washington City Paper blogger Amanda Hess caught wind of the controversy over the now infamous Aug. 31 sex column, “’Sex’perimentation defines Welcome Week.” “The Sexist’s” response made several excellent points concerning sex-shaming and, likely, said things we tried to say, with more pinache, in our Sept. 3 editorial.
The same day, politics blog Wonkette, posted our video interview with Kennedy Political Union Speaker Meghan McCain, along with a quick (snarky) rundown of what McCain says in the video.
What I am interested in is this marvel we call “The Internets.” Certainly, campus may have been abuzz with news of McCain’s earrings and controversy over whether cuddling to the smell of AXE negates a possible date rape scenario. But these “Interwebs” made it so that individuals from distant lands were also able to critique decorations in The Eagle office the way that only a select few were previously able.
I know the term “social media” was coined eons ago, at the beginning of the Internet age, long before this young editor can remember. But I would like to give it a new polish. What I think is interesting about these two stories being picked up in this new-fangled insular world of ours, and sorry if I buried the lede, is the comments.
I’m redefining social media as this: the phenomenon is which traditionally non-interactive media, like, say, newspapers, become social. That is, I know that girl they called a hobbit!!! I have read these “weblogs,” as they are called, before. But I’ve never, you know, seen my friends made fun on them before.
Social media, as I’ve defined it, makes something usually so serious, such as a newspaper, so much more casual. Yes, there is the back and forth of the ed page, but you usually don’t see people pointing out what is going in the newsroom. Suddenly, readers are in the newsroom, saying what they’re thinking, and they’re not the serious insights signed with full name and class year we run on this page.
Social media, as the lords of the ‘Net define it, are all about commenting on what people are wearing and what mythical creature they might look like. This Internet age we live in, is all about exposing one’s personal life to public scrutiny. It’s funny, though, when a Serious News Story suddenly becomes a part of social media, either way you want to define it. I have never watched the transition from traditional media to social media before.
I feel that it is likely Metro-National Editor Marisa Kendall did not don her glasses last Wednesday morning, thinking, I hope hundreds of people see this and note that I look like a band geek. And I don’t think the AU Threesome thought the language of their column, not the content, would be the site of controversy. The Internet is shallow but its memory runs deep. Actions and appearances can be reviewed in perpetuity. This didn’t hit me with such impact until Thursday.
The journalists of yesteryear are remembered with the dashing good looks of Robert Redford and their work the tidy plotlines of “All the President’s Men.” But the journalists of today will be forever doomed to repeat their mistakes, facial expressions and minor language choices perpetually in their own circle of hell. This age of the Internet, it’s rough.
Kristen Powell is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences and design editor for The Eagle. You can reach her at kpowell@theeagleonline.com.
