So im presenting Jerry Kangs article "Ruminations on Cyber-Space" for this weeks tutorial. Im just going to write a bit of a summary about it and put in some key points ive thought of along the way and finish each of the key points with a few questions for you to think about/or not for the tute!
Jerry Kang article "Ruminations on Cyber-Race" talks about different ways race is brought into cyber space as well as the importance of identity in cyber space. He goes through the idea of humans overcoming racial stereotypes through the Internet.
Specifically he says that "cyber space enables multiple forms of computer-mediated interactions...through email, threaded discussion forms, real-time chat, instant messaging, Weblogs, collaborative gaming, peer-to-peer, and multi user domains, people interact with each other at great distances, often in groups." These communication technologies not only help maintain social relationships originally constructed in real space but also facilitate new relationships, originally formed in cyber space." "Cyber-space also makes talking with strangers easier because individuals are less fearful...ones physical body is never at risk." Although our physical body is never at risk, are we mentally at risk? He suggests these relationships in virtual communities form due to each individuals in that community being centred around common interests, experiences and fates. I think this idea obviously exists in real space aswell as cyber space as most people form some sort of relationship more often when they share common interests, experiences or just generally have some sort of understanding with one another. The following quote by Kang is relevant in applying this "Interests in such matters is powerfully shaped by socioeconomic class, gender, and age, and people drawn together by these comonalities will hardly all be of the same race." So therefore, you would think that if these people form relationships with one another because of these commonalities, race wouldn't be an issue? Does cyber-space increase social contact between the races?
Kang talk about a range of tactics for challenging racism through the internet. For example he talks about the abolition of Race, in fact, particular ways to go about taking away race from everyday situations. He says that the different tactics should be used in different 'zones' of the internet. I.e. in the market place. "Consider the impact of abolition on large economic transactions, such as automobile purchases, insurance, personal loans, and mortgages. These transactions are today negotiated face to face, thereby triggering racial schema's. If they were instead executed through communication systems that filtered out race and its proxies, then racial discrimination would decrease." Do you feel this is true, is it possible to decrease race just by altering communication systems? Do you agree with these tactics? Also Kang suggests that in cyber-space people have the opportunity to "cyber-pass", where they hide behind race and not portray themselves as having any race at all, they are kept anonymous. "In real space this is hard to do, but in cyber space, it is far easier to wear racial masks." Although performance still seriously risks stereotype, so either way a sense of race is still apparent.
Jerry Kang argues that through his experiences of racial encounter on cyber space, that race is a social construction. He explains this through 3 processes of interaction. Firstly, in any social interaction our law and culture provides us with a list of racial categories in which we divide each other into, such as black, asian, indian and so on. Secondly we collect data through our senses to map the individual to a category, such as physical appearance. Thirdly mapping triggers meanings- cognitive beliefs about and affective reactions to people in these racial categories, such as foreignness, intelligence, attractiveness or its opposite and so on. Kang says that " these meanings triggered automatically and subconsciously alter our behaviour, such as simply crossing the street, profiling Arabs as terrorists". In that do you think Race is a social construction? Do you think race is the same on cyber space as it is in real space? And is the line for race in the real world and virtual world becoming smaller?
"Just because race is not signaled in cyber space does not mean that race ceases to matter in cyber space or, certainly, in real space. Race will continue to influence content of ones communications even if the audience is not aware of the nature of that influence." Is this true?
And finally...think about how much lives have changed since the Web was introduced, do you think that race is bigger issue now than it was before the web was even invented?
I think I have to end it here, although the article is full of many more interesting facts, we can discuss further in the tute!
See you all Wednesday :)
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