THE INTERNET (PRO WRESTLING)

I       THE INTERNET AS MEDIUM

        A) GENERALLY  

• Internet is substantially different from other media types (books, etc.) 

• Anyone who owns a computer can be a message source (like printing press back in the day)
• Advantages
• More inclusive: excluded voices – too small numerically (media critics, etc.)
• Disadvantages
• Excluded voices can be heard (hate groups, KKK, creepy people, conspiracy theories, etc.)

• Internet enables two-way communication.
• Other media types: retaining feedback was difficult (reading a book) 

• Internet incorporates movies, television, radio, etc.
• Result is a disembodied from it’s physical form (before you needed physical object – book, but now you can just get it from the Internet)
• Created legal problems (steal books, and other types of media)
• Opportunities for artists because you don’t need a physical form of media (such as getting a record contract), allows them to get their stuff out there (now they can skip recording contract completely)
• The policy of net neutrality
• Internet service providers are required to treat all web content equally
• (Be familiar with net neutrality)

II     A BRIEF HISTORY OF PRO WRESTLING

        A) EARLY HISTORY: CARNIVAL

• Professional wrestling started in traveling carnivals in 19^th century
• Allowed professional wrestlers fight local peoples (was a fix)
• When professional wrestlers were fighting each other, they both knew the moves, so it was boring
• Beginning in the 1920’s, wrestling became fixed
• Matches winner was known in advanced
• Professional wrestlers would tell each other the moves they were about to do
• A story line in which hero’s (were called faces) battled villain characters (were called heels)

B) THE FIX IS IN

CONVENTIONS

KAYFABE

INTERPRETIVE COMMUNITIES: SMARTS & MARKS

• Kayfabe – code of silence for wrestlers not to tell their secrets to outsiders
• Anyone that told these secrets would be fired and never to work
• Smarts: term for the insiders within the industry

Marks: term for the outsiders 

• The fake wrestling came out in 1992 that it was not a sport, but a sports entertainment  
• Vince mic-man was the person who told the world 

III    WRESTLING AND THE INTERNET

        A) THE INTERNET GENERALLY:

AUDIENCE, INDUSTRY & INTERPRETIVE COMMUNITIES

• The internet was a way to connect fans and interpretive communities together
• Interpretive communities can “meet” or directly engage in talks through the internet (before it was isolated)
• Internet provides a great amount of feedback to companies who produce a particular product (wrestling)

B) AND WRESTLING: SMART MARKS

                GATHER INFO

                TALK AMONG SELVES

                FEEDBACK TO INDUSTRY

• Smart mark: term used in the wrestling industry. Knew it was fake but still enjoyed it
• Hybrid sort of fan
• Used the Internet to go on certain websites to gather information about certain wrestlers and able to talk to other Smart Mark fans about wrestlers
• Industry prospective: instant feedback (due to internet). Make informed decisions about who should win next to boost ratings

MEDIA & THE LAW

I       FREEDOM OF SPEECH

        A) REASONS FOR & AGAINST

                1) FOR: SELF GOVT, DISCOVER TRUTH, INDIVIDUAL

• Feely debate, argue, etc. about government
• Allow people to discover truth about the world
• Best way to discover who you are if you are able to be in a process of trial and error 

·         Can harm the community – writing paper that harms national security

·         Can harm individuals – hitting someone

B) THE COURTS & FREE SPEECH

                RIGHTS AS CONVENTIONS

• Rights are best understood by conventions
• Rights are conventional
• Rights are polysemic (First Amendment is extremely polysemic) – supreme court is there to interpret the polysemic amendments 

• Take balancing approach with free speech and weighs it against the value of the government regulation
• Leafleting – cities banned it because the cities did not want liter on the streets

C) HIERARCHIES OF FREE SPEECH

                1) BY SPEECH CONTENT/SUBJECT

• The content/subject – political speech has the highest value. The other type of speech that has the next high value is academic speech
• Truth and knowledge are best found in the freedom of speech
• Bottom of the scale (low value of speech) – Hate speech (against race, sex, etc.) and Obscenity (sexual themes or topics)
• In the middle of the scale (medium value of speech) – Advertisement Speech and Entertainment
• If the government wants to ban a political speech or academic speech – they better have a really good reason

• Most protected
• Print media is one of the most protected (especially newspapers)
• Face to face is the other most protected
• Least protection
• Broadcast media (Radio & TV)

• Over time in general, speech has been increasingly free
• Early 20^th century – fighting words were forbidden. Freedom of speech was limited
• Now it is even okay to advocate fighting words
• Circumstances of the speech are key
• Court has always recognize that during war time it is okay to curtail (limit) freedom of speech
• Different media types post different political problems  

II     FREE SPEECH & MASS MEDIA

A)   PRINT MEDIA

• Has the longest tradition
• Has been restraint through two techniques:

                PRIOR RESTRAINT

• Prevent publication from occurring

                POST PUBLISHING PUNISHMENT

• Throw people in jail
• Alien and sedition acts
• Espionage sedition acts
• Smith acts – illegal to overthrow the U.S government 

B) BROADCAST MEDIA

SCARCITY & CAPTIVE AUDS

• Scarcity doctrine - there is only so much wavelength in the spectrum (government has to step in and regulate it)
• Captive audience Doctrine – Television and Radio are beamed into our homes, we have no way to stop it (government stepped in and regulated the content

                FCC REGS

• Method of control is the FCC (Federal communications Commission) enforces the rules through; fines and licenses

A)   WHOSE FREE SPEECH?

·       Early on:activists, individuals and journalists

• Over time it changed to broadcast corporations
• Fairness doctrine – radios/TVs need to show both sides of the story (political)
• Doesn’t exist anymore because it limits their freedom of speech 

III    FREE SPEECH: BALANCING CORP. & PUBLIC INTERESTS

A)   PUBLIC AIRWAVES 

• Owned by the public
• Government holds them in trust
• Airwaves needed to be in the public interests
• Regulation against monopolies 

I       LIBERTARIAN VS SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY MODELS

A)   LIBERTARIAN MODEL & MEDIA INDUSTRY

• Media industry tends to lean towards a Libertarian model
• Media will ACT like social responsibility model is more apparent 

A)   SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY MODEL 

II     CASES IN MEDIA ETHICS: TV & FILM

A)   CARTOON VIOLENCE

• Problematic for many reasons
• Nature of audience
• Nature of programming
• Violence is entertaining
• Goal is primarily to entertainment of kids and also more kids watching the show, the more money they can make selling advertising to kids
• Ethical theories
• Against violence
• Ethics of duty – violence worst way to solve problems, etc. (ultimate disregard). Made cartoon as a means to an end
• Ethics of consequence – associated with increased child violence.
• Defend violence
• Ethics of duty – program is not misusing kids, but appeals to what kids want
• Ethics of consequence – no proof that cartoons are related to real life violence

OTHER ISSUES: WAR W/O VIOLENCE,

GRAPHIC VIOLENCE

• Is it better to show a war where no body gets hurts in a cartoon, or is it better to show a war where people get hurt in cartoons? What does it portray?

B) WOMEN’S BODY IMAGE

                & OTHER MEDIA STEREOTYPES

• In ancient Rome, if you were tan and skinny: that represented low class and non-desirable
• In our culture: boney, large chested women are portrayed as wanted
• Audience is variable,
• Female audiences can be harmed by the images
• Context: bulimia, plastic surgery, anorexia, and other psychological disorders
• Ethical Theories
• Against Violence
• Ethics of duty: focusing on the body, disrespects women’s as persons 
• Ethics of consequence: images are the cause of the increase in bulimia and other disorders
• Defend:
• You cannot prove a causal relationship
• Ethics of duty: freedom of expression is accorded to all, even those who created the images
• Solutions
• Have a certain BMI to be a model
• Counter-images is a possible solution (Kim Karshdashian)
• Self Regulation 

III    CASES IN MEDIA ETHICS: THE INTERNET

                EXTREMES OF FREE SPEECH    

• Two websites that are pro-life activists:
• Nuremburg Trials – named website this to draw a similarity to doctors who provide abortion and posted dead or alive pictures of them
• Christian gallery – posted women seeking abortions online on this website (to bully the women)
•  Their goal of Christian gallery are to stop women seeking an abortion
• Internet is the medium
• Context: extremism often
• Theories applied to Christian Gallery
• Against
• Ethics of duty – the right of privacy
• Ethics of consequence – sort of practice will decrease
• Defend
• Ethics of consequence – decrease abortion
• Ethics of duty – political right to free expression. Protecting rights of an unborn 
• Solutions
• Self-regulation
• Let lawsuits figure it all out
• Continue to be controversial