No. 151 / Apr 19, 2021
The recent reports of school violence among celebrities have brought confusion in the world of sports and entertainment. This shows how online anonymity could enable individuals to expose injustices without revealing their identities. Recently, online exposures have shown both their function and dysfunction.
First, online exposure serves as a medium for informing the actual conditions of those who have suffered unfair damage and helping them correct unfairness. On March 2, 2021, a netizen revealed the brutality of an actor named Ji-soo on a website. Additional revelations have been made since then, and Ji-soo eventually apologized, acknowledging his school bullying. Also, on February 10, Lee Da-yeong and Lee Jae-yeong, members of the women’s volleyball team named the Incheon Heungkuk Life Pink Spiders, were accused of encouraging violence in the sports world since they were in elementary school, and these accusations were later confirmed to be true. As such, various online exposures are emerging among celebrities. If there were no accusers, past wrongdoings would have gone unpunished forever, with the victims suffering in silence as the assailants receive love and admiration.
On the contrary, there has also been controversy about false accusations. On February 22, a former schoolmate of Min-gyu, a member of Seventeen, from middle school posted a revelation online. Min-gyu and his agency met with the people who claimed to be victims and were involved in the exposure, but it all turned out to be a lie. The accusers would have relied on anonymity to write on social media, regardless of whether they had an intentional purpose or not. However, websites do not have an official correction process for wrong content, such as mass media, so people can just delete their posts if they are proven to be false. On the other hand, the celebrities and all the staff have to make sure the case is true, and this process takes a long time. While justice is somewhat served if the revelations are true, it would be very difficult for celebrities to bounce back after being wrongfully branded as “school bullies”.
Since the 2010s, the use of Social Network Service (SNS) has been becoming increasingly widespread, and this has led to the emergence of a “Post-Truth Society” where people only believe what they want to believe without checking what the truth is. Therefore, the spread of fake news and false information is also becoming more prevalent. As this situation escalated further, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) distributed an infographic entitled “How to Spot Fake News” last February 2017. It included checking the credibility of the author and determining whether the information actually supports the content. In addition, modern media literacy education places importance on knowing how to pick out reliable information in an environment overflowing with reckless information, and how to understand and analyze it critically. As such, everyone has been taking more precautions against the problem of fake news and information, which will only continue to grow in the future.
By Lee Ga-eun, AG Cub Reporter
dlrkdms2231@ajou.ac.kr
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