History of a Public Controversy: Cancel Culture

Duties:

Ella DeKunder – Scribe

Veronica Emigh – Park ranger

Joshua Reynolds – Goalkeeper

Timeline:

Week of 11/11/19

• Choose topic, background research, decide roles

Week of 11/18/19

• Storyline
• Dec 2- Start gathering images and videos, begin writing script
• Dec 4- Have all interviews finished, put the video together, finish script.
• Dec 7- Begin video editing and narration recording.
• Dec 9- Clean everything up and double check all the work.
• Dec 11- Present videos in class
• Dec 14- Final video cuts by noon

 

Definition:

Cancelled: form of boycott where called-out person is thrust out of social and professional circles on social media or the real world. The internet facilitates and magnifies this exclusion.

• The person/organization/show can never be redeemed; must be cancelled permanently
• Demonetized or de-platformed (in terms of YouTube)
• Looking up past things a person said out of context from multiple years or even decades ago

 

In our video project, we would like to explore the social controversy surrounding cancel culture and the act of calling out certain people based on their past actions or stances. We would like to emphasize how social media and the internet has magnified this phenomenon recently and how now that people can build their professional career on the internet, “cancelling” them not only destroys their reputation but their livelihood as well. The framing questions we are building our video around center on as a baseline stance, is it ever acceptable to cancel someone, and are there any acts that should be considered irredeemable? In addition, what is a reasonable alternative to cancel culture that still demands accountability for actions, but allows for a more civil discussion as opposed to complete shutdown?

In terms of historizing the issue, we would like to draw nuanced comparisons between cancelling and boycotting, and how those similar concepts actually represent different realities in history. Both attempt to promote positive change by protesting ideas, but lead to drastically different outcomes. We will also contextualize our argument by explaining how the introduction of social media and the internet changed the effect and extent of how detrimental being cancelled is. In our video, we will use audio bites and video clips from news  sources, social media platforms such as Twitter, one of the largest birthing grounds of cancel culture, and personal interviews with students at Penn State.

 

Day One:

– relation to doxing politics/social

– comedians and celebrities

• Cristiano Ronaldo – sexual abuse
• Taylor Swift – common trope
• Kayne West – “slavery was a choice”
• James Charles – racism/transphobia/ripping off fans
• Michael Jackson – pedophilia
• Steven Crowder – kicked off YouTube, demonetized
• Soph – far-right, kicked off YouTube, banned
• Kevin Hart – made a homophobic joke in 2008 and couldn’t host Oscars
• Dave Chapelle – sticks and stones

– political/legitimate figures

• Trump – supporters (banned on twitter)
• Political polarization fuels this fire

– Pop culture/Movies

• Joker movie
• Sticks and Stones

– how they responded

– interview people

– online surveys

– research and data

– clear contextualization

– boycotting relationship

 

Day Two:

Merriam Webster Definition:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/cancel-culture-words-were-watching

Professor Taheri link

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/02/style/what-is-cancel-culture.html

Bottom line: cancel culture is a negative thing, a form of censorship, not purely malicious, can even be well-intentioned, but still detrimental.

Victims are bullies and bullies are victims

Conclusion: we need to be promoting effective civil discourse and cancel culture is inherently a form of censorship and endorses the polarization of the media and society. Instead of ignoring ideas or people we don’t agree with, we need to engage in meaningful discourse with them for any progress to occur.

Levels of Cancellation Severity:

-Does something someone else finds annoying

-Says something controversial

-Does something controversial

-Does something outright wrong and appalling that should be called out*

-Morally unacceptable and/or illegal*

*How should we address these?

Video Formatting Ideas:

-Discussing the definition and origin of cancel culture

-Touching on a few examples of people across different media outlets who have been cancelled

-Surveying people on campus about people they consider cancelled or that they have seen being cancelled in the media and their thoughts on the issue/what needs to be done. Is it ok? If not, what should we be doing instead?

Survey Questions:

What is cancel culture in one or two words to you?

1. Is it acceptable to cancel someone? Yes or No
2. Should any of these people be cancelled? List people (choose any of the above)
3. What is severe enough to deem someone cancelled? (choose any of the above)

 

Day Three

Framing Questions

1. Is it acceptable to cancel someone?
2. What things deserve redemption?
3. Are there any acts that are absolutely irredeemable?
4. Why do we as a society feel the need to censor people?
5. How do we promote civil discourse?
6. What would qualify as reasonable accountability? How do we hold one another accountable without completely shutting them down?

 

Historicize the controversy

Before

• Only a couple sites to release news (CNN, NBC, ABC, Fox) so without internet, the censorship not apparent because edited out, and now anybody can make news or be a journalist or create information
• Boycotts used to be a constructive means of promoting equality and fighting censorship

Now

• the opposite: used to abuse and silence
• Social media proliferates

 

Day Four

 

Survey logistics:Survey lo

 

Survey logistics:

100 people surveyed in person outside of the HUB

3 Questions:

1. What is cancel culture in one or two words to you?
2. Select all the following options that should be cancelled:
   1. A comedian makes a joke that offends a racial/political/religious group
   2. A regular person posts an offensive meme on Twitter
   3. A politician issues a polarizing statement about a social or political issue
   4. A member of the KKK says the n-word in a YouTube video comment
   5. A member of Antifa burns the American flag