{"id":11918,"date":"2012-09-17T19:17:32","date_gmt":"2012-09-17T23:17:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/?p=11918"},"modified":"2012-09-18T11:46:51","modified_gmt":"2012-09-18T15:46:51","slug":"newsweek-isnt-a-troll-even-if-its-acting-like-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/2012\/09\/17\/newsweek-isnt-a-troll-even-if-its-acting-like-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Newsweek Isn\u2019t A \u201cTroll\u201d (Even If It\u2019s Acting Like One)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In light of the recent Newsweek<\/em> magazine cover scandal, let\u2019s think for a moment on what a \u201ctroll\u201d is and when we should or should not call someone or something a troll. My first reaction to the Islamaphobic cover was \u201ctrolling. ignore.\u201d That was the exact wrong<\/em> reaction.<\/p>\n

Trolls, of course, are those who\u00a0deliberately\u00a0post inflammatory\u00a0material in order to disrupt or derail discourse. Declaring something or someone a \u201ctroll\u201d is a way of saying that they just want attention. Trolls attempt to disrupt productive communication in an attempt to get noticed. The one thing you need to know to do when this happens:\u00a0don\u2019t feed the trolls<\/em>. Don\u2019t. Feed. The. Trolls. It\u2019s good advice. However, because of its mainstream position, I do not think Newsweek<\/em> is a \u201ctroll,\u201d even if it sure as hell is acting like one.<\/p>\n

Go read the better news outlets for more of the story, but the short of it is that Newsweek<\/em> magazine, a once-trusted source of important journalism, and still a ubiquitous presence on magazine racks across the United States, has recently stepped up efforts to be more\u00a0provocative\u00a0and confrontational. Just this year they ran a cover with\u00a0a terrible photo<\/a> of Michelle Bachmann, declared Obama \u201cThe First Gay President<\/a>\u201d, and this week, worst of all, there is the controversial image proclaiming so-called \u201cMUSLIM RAGE\u201d:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The reaction from so many, including lots of very smart people, has been to say Newsweek<\/em> is trolling; and, thus, the appropriate reaction is to not pay attention. Remember: we Don\u2019t. Feed. The. Trolls. Newsweek<\/em> seems desperate for attention, so ignore them, and we\u2019ll all be better off. Salon<\/em> ran a story earlier today titled \u201cNewsweek trolls again with MUSLIM RAGE<\/a>\u201d, beginning with,<\/p>\n

Look, we all know Tina Brown, editor of Newsweek, is simply trolling us, because trolling is the only way for a weekly newsmagazine to get any sort of attention anymore.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I disagree.<\/p>\n

One important characteristic of trolls is that they are outliers trying to hijack the mainstream conversation. Newsweek<\/em> can’t derail the central discourse because it is (unfortunately)\u00a0part of the center of that discourse. Newsweek<\/em> can’t troll this topic any more than I can troll my own blog, regardless what I post. Those smart media pundits saying Newsweek<\/em> is trolling forget the magazine\u00a0is part of the mainstream<\/em> conversation. Many forget that, even though they removed\u00a0Newsweek<\/em>\u00a0from their finely tuned and abnormally selective news diets, the magazine continues to exist, racist cover and all, in front of millions paying for their groceries. Those of us following sharp journalists on Twitter and scanning political blogs forget that millions continue to either read Newsweek<\/em> or at least scan its covers to get a sense of global politics. Newsweek<\/em>‘s circulation is around 1.5 million according<\/a> to Pew, to say nothing of their website and social media streams.<\/p>\n

Simply,\u00a0Newsweek<\/em>\u00a0is mainstream<\/a>. And we should not ignore mainstream news outlets.<\/p>\n

Calling Newsweek<\/em> a “troll” and saying not to \u201cfeed\u201d it with attention, even negative attention, forfeits the bigger, mainstream news conversation to these reckless news magazines. A couple of days ago there was a popular post by Joel Gascoigne<\/a> that received lot of attention called \u201cthe power of ignoring mainstream news<\/a>\u201d that touched a similar nerve in me. I agree much mainstream news, including Newsweek<\/em>, is problematic, but that is exactly why we\u00a0shouldn’t\u00a0<\/em>ignore it. Don’t overlook it, critique it. Work to make it better. Don\u2019t concede involvement with the mainstream discussion much of the country will have in order to be so self-satisfied with your own personal news diet. We have a responsibility to pay attention, be critical, and call out powerful narratives when\u00a0necessary. The influence these outlets have is real.<\/p>\n

To be clear: never feed the trolls. The fact that we need to<\/em> take on (that is \u201cfeed\u201d or give attention to) mainstream outlets like Newsweek<\/em>\u00a0is precisely why we should not call them \u201ctrolls.” Even if their behavior looks a lot like trolling. Trolls derail the established discourse, and, like it or not, Newsweek<\/em> is part of that discourse for much of the country. By calling\u00a0Newsweek<\/em>\u00a0a \u201ctroll,\u201d one is excusing oneself from engaging mainstream conversations and is thereby doing nothing to make them better.\u00a0It excuses us from taking on (“feeding”) these voices of power. No, pay attention to\u00a0Newsweek<\/em>, beat it up, and perhaps then it’ll be knocked so far from the mainstream that we can finally stop feeding them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While the Islamaphobic Newsweek cover looks like trolling, we shouldn’t call it that. While you don’t feed the troll, we shouldn’t ignore mainstream news outlets and forfeit the larger conversation. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":559,"featured_media":11919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9967],"tags":[446,140,1068,18439,18436,85,82,18440,18441],"class_list":["post-11918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","tag-cover","tag-internet","tag-islam","tag-muslim-rage","tag-newsweek","tag-politics","tag-racism","tag-troll","tag-trolling"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/files\/2012\/09\/newsweek-troll.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/559"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11918"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11924,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11918\/revisions\/11924"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}