In these weeks I read many articles in the italian, european and Usa journals about trolls on the public profile of Very Important Person.
People on social network write to "their" heroes : Insults, menaces and other fine and agreeable words... Very Important Person becomes angry and protests, some Very Important Person says : "i leave"...
They are right, insults and menaces are crimes and the crimes must to be prosecuted because the law and his respect draws the difference between democracy and chaos , between to walk in a sunny day with our children and wife to do shopping and to stay at home because outside the door there are only risks. They are right and this is not arguable. But it's important to discuss , to understand because it happens. In the use of Social Network the first error is to distort the disposition of media.
An usual circle of Friends
Social Network don't born as broadcast communication, it is media to take contact with a little circle of own friends, but the marketing and money make a great revolution and also Very Important Person decides to invade Social Network with their thoughts.
Journalists and Politicos, for example, spill their opinion without filter of editorial staff. These opinions are truth and not one can disapprove it, because when you have 10.000 follower in Twitter or Facebook , the relationship is similar to communication in broadcast , but sometimes ill-mannered , irritating or sarcastic .
This way to communicate induces obviously a behavior incorrect in many people because without a real acquaintance and impossibility of real comparison the manner is similar to worst fan-boy when in the pub discusses about Soccer or Politics and Politicos , Managers and Players don't listen you. This not excuse a incorrect and illegal behavior, but if you want to use a Social Network like your personal spokesperson you cannot neglect the logic behind the media.
In the last post we have showed how
it's possible with false news on the web to create a dangerous
politic crisis that can degenerate in demonstration , but also in
riot (yesterday in Italy a crazy has shot at two soldiers in front of
Government Palace).
Honestly we can say about "false
news" or fakes, the problem follows the human story, we
remembered Orson Wells and his “War of the Worlds” on 1938, or
the aria “The calumny is a little wind” , from “The Barber of
Seville” by Gioacchino Rossini...
The calumny is a little wind,
a very gentle little breeze
which numbly, softly,
lightly, kindly,
begins to whisper.
Little by little, mildly,
in a low voice, hissing,
it goes flowing, it goes buzzing;
in people's ears
it enters deftly
and makes heads and brains
stun and blow.
Getting out from the mouth
the clamour grows:
it slowly strenghtens,
it already flies from one place to
another.
It seems like the thunder, like the
storm
that in the depht of the forest
go whistling, grumbling,
and makes your blood run cold.
In the end it spills over and blow up,
it spreads, it doubles
and provokes an explosion
like a cannon shot,
an earthquake, a rain storm,
a general tumult
which makes the air peal.
And the miserable one who is defamed,
degraded, trampled,
scourged by the public opinion
fortunately dies.
Facebook, Twitter, and other Social
Networks and search engines are full of news without validation and
“who says” is not less important than “what says”. We have
sure many digital friends and someone of them publishes on his
profile metric tons of link, pictures, news ; sometimes they are fun,
nice, likeable, sometimes they are irritating, they spreads false
news, fake, malware, but our friend believes in it, without to ask if
it true or not, without to search more info, so he begins to think
vaccinations are only a deceit of Pharmacy Industries or Elvis is
alive. We don't talk about crazy people, because this people is our
colleague, maybe our teacher or brother.
This is the scenario, Internet as media
grows his power and people day by day is always more zoned out.
So our lives changes and it is more
dependent on web news , maybe it's time to ask ourselves :
“how it's possible to validate news
and info on the Web?”
We don't want censorship, but it's not
possible to allow people not vaccinates their children because they
read on the web the opinions of some Guru …
Ok, so much for that , it's time to find
answers...
A solution in terms of It , probably is
impossible...
The best way is surely to educate , to teach people to
ask the first and most important question :
“Who wrote
this?”
Do you accept to be operated on your
injured knee by a teacher of History?
Not, you demand to have a
surgeon.
Why therefore people accepts an opinion
about medicine by “someone” and believe it?
Why therefore people accepts an opinion
about Politics by “someone” and believe it?
A few years ago it was hard to find
info, we needed to read many books, to pass long time to study or in
a Library, and books were honest, we knew authors.
Books cost , a publisher checked the
Curriculum Vitae of an author, it was not enough to write few words,
there was necessity of arguments, documents, proofs and evidences.
Today it's enough to have many "like"
, it's a risk, it's a danger, because ideas and words can kill.
It's important to introduce that this
post isn't a politic post, but a reflection about It innovation and
his correlation with the change of form of politic and social participation.
Furthermore this post is a first part
of two about the importance to validate news coming from web, and
how without a validation it's possible to create a very serious
crisis that can spread from web to real life of people with
unpredictable effects.
The M5S , Italian party created in 2009
by Beppe Grillo a comedian and Roberto Casaleggio an expert of
communication strategy, is a great example of populism that with a
dishonest news can influence a politic scenario in dramatic way.
Casaleggio (left) and Grillo
After a very incredible result in
national election 2013 , the M5S rejects all possible agreement to
enter in a Government, because the their belief system is to reject
"the old, dirty politic" and to propose a new
iper-democracy from the web.
Already they had proposed a list of
candidate voted by web and when in the middle of institutional
crisis because of impossibility to make a government , Italy had to
elect a new president of Republic , they decide to propose a
candidate after the "quirinarie" a internet poll for
registered voters of their blog, almost 50 thousand person.
The winner is Milena Gabanelli ,
journalist very famous for her TV show, but she rejects to become
their candidate.
So they decides to propose the
candidature to Stefano Rodotà , 80 years old , politic of left wing.
Stefano Rodotà
They immediately begin to say that this
candidate is the candidate that Italians want and in the rough days
while parliament fails for 5 time the election , they repeat that
Rodotà is a candidate that italians want and some people begins to
demonstrate in front of Parliament.
Many people by Facebook and Twitter say
the same thing, many journalist of left wing say the same thing,
other journalists ask data of this poll , but M5S don't provides
results.
So after one crazy week, in the
Saturday morning the parliament renews confidence in Giorgio
Napolitano , the outgoing president.
M5S begins to call “Golpe” this and
to incite people to march to Rome (as Mussolini in 1922).
Some people demonstrates, but at the
same time on Sunday during regional election in Friuli Venezia Giulia
the M5S loses almost 12% from 26% of one month before.
Tuesday after many questions about
result of quirinarie M5S provides finally the result :
Registered voters : 48.292
Votes : 28.518
- Gabanelli Milena: 5.796
- Strada Gino: 4.938
- Rodota' Stefano: 4.677
after this long explanation , we arrive
in the middle of our discussion... ...
Only 4.677 people voted Stefano Rodotà,
but M5S with the help of twitter, Facebook and Web tells a fantasious
tale that he is the candidate of 60 millions of Italians.
The Politics whips itself within a
blender , a party goes in crisis , government is suspended , citizens
are angry, all this because of false information...
This is a good example, but it's
possible to make other as recent news about Obama hurt in a explosion
or when Stocks of Apple lost the value because of unofficial email.
We can accept it?
It's problem only about public life?
In the second part of post , we will
analyze other similar case but in private life and we will ask to
ourself :”how it's possible to make a solution?”
Ps
I'm not English Native Speaker so if you notice some error , i apologize.
