SHELLY PALMER REPORT: What We Can Learn From Eight Florida Teens

quotThey39ll be tried as adults for kidnapping a first degree felony and batteryquot said Chip Thullbery a spokesman for the Polk County state attorney Three of them will also be charged with tampering with a witness If convicted they could be sentenced to life in prisonThis story has been all over the news for the past few days In fact it has been impossible to avoid From broadcast network to local station to cable news channel it39s the video de jour There are a few things here that interest me several that disgust me and some as a parent that make my blood boil That being said I want to spend a few moments exploring the idea that art reflects our culture the medium is the message and a new thesis video recordkeeping is neither art nor a reflection of our cultureAccording to the Orlando TimesSentinel Mulberry High School student Victoria quotToriquot Lindsay was beaten unconscious by April Cooper 14 who punched her in the face and slammed her head against the wall until Tori fell unconscious After waking up Victoria found herself on the living room couch surrounded by a group of girls who resumed the beating Victoria suffered bruises a concussion and damage to her left ear and eye She is expected to recover Her MySpace page reads quotVictoria is just finequotThe girls said the beating occurred because quotToriquot had been trash talking on her MySpace page The video was a chance for the girls to retaliate and humiliate in a public forum It ends with one of the girls saying quotThere39s only 17 seconds left Make it goodquot Of course the video never made it to MySpace or YouTube until Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd made a portion of it available to the press The clip that has been seen around the country is only 1 of 5In a press conference Sheriff Judd said the girls showed no remorse quotWhen they were in a holding cell they were all laughing amp8230quot One of the teens arrested asked quotDoes this mean I39m going to miss cheerleading practice tomorrowquot Others laughed and were quoted saying quotIt looks like we won39t be going to the beach this weekendquotIf you dig deep enough into the facts of this incident you will be amazed at just how damaged these kids and their parents are One question that comes to mind is quotHow is it that none of these kids knew they were crossing a line that would quite likely have more tragic consequences for the attackers than for the victimquot Are these kids so desensitized to reality that they actually didn39t know what they were doing was not only wrong but punishable by serious jail time Or are they just criminals The family whom Victoria was not living with at the time of the beating would like a public apology from the girl They also want a law to protect kids on video and socialnetworking Web sites In a press conference Tori39s father Patrick Lindsay said quotIt all goes back to the hot topic which is the Internet What the Internet is doing to our kids What society is doing to our kids and the desensitization of our kids I39m very upset with these Internet companies As far as I39m concerned MySpace is the antiChrist for children I39m not gonna stop here I39m going to carry this as far as I canquotExcuse me Mr Lindsay amp8230 is it possible that your estranged daughter against whom your wife has a restraining order and who you do not parent nor live with might have some problems that don39t have anything to do with social networks Is it possible that the eight teenagers who kidnapped and beat her suffer from similar lack of parenting upbringing education and suitable supervisionLet39s move on The kids never got to post the stuff online However as soon as the Sheriff released the video lots of people posted it How insane is the online culture On breakcom the page has five Diggs and an advertisement for Verizon And just to drive you totally crazy the video had several overlay ads as seen below Ahh amp8230 let39s interrupt watching this nice little girl get beaten to a pulp and order some communications services from Verizon Or perhaps we should click on the overlay and find out if we should make an alternative energy growth investment If this weren39t so distasteful it would actually be funnyBy the way this video was posted by user EddieAdams in the quotFunnyquot category and already has 666233 hits and 1273 commentsAt the end of the day the online publishers are only a little worse than the traditional media outlets All of the shows carrying this news are adsupportedIs the Internet to blame Are the social networks How about our quotfamequot oriented society or the value chain that makes advertising against this kind of content profitable even sought after Were the kids trying to trade in the currency of quotstreet credquot Or were they just a bunch of damaged kids committing a criminal act Certainly this video is not art I39m pretty certain it does not accurately reflect our culture or our society Selling advertising against the idea that it does as the news networks are is at least as distasteful as anything the quotInternetquot did when it monetized a technology whereby quotEddieAdamsquot could post a beating as quotfunnyquot and get over half a million people to agree or disagree But if the clip is not an accurate reflection of our society it is at least an absolutely accurate record of the tragic events of that day Smart stupid disgusting maddening unfortunate tragic compelling newsworthy you choose the words The outcome will be the sameShelly Palmer is Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group LLC and the author of Television Disrupted The Transition from Network to Networked TV 2006 Focal Press Shelly is also President of the National Academy of Television Arts ampamp Sciences NY the organization that bestows the coveted Emmyamp174 Awards He is the ViceChairman of the National Academy of Media Arts ampamp Sciences an organization dedicated to education and leadership in the areas of technology media and entertainment Palmer also oversees the Advanced Media Technology Emmyamp174 Awards which honors outstanding achievements in the science and technology of advanced media You can read Shellyamp8217s blog here Shelly can be reached at shellypalmernetCheck out the Shelly Palmer Report archive

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SHELLY PALMER REPORT: What We Can Learn From Eight Florida Teens

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