Chapter nine identifies tactics employed by social outsiders to employ Internet communication to resist dominant culture. Initially, the authors describe discursive resistance as a means of crafting alternative spaces within dominant places. Thereafter, the chapter outlines two methods of computer-mediated protest: agonistic and utopian rhetoric - the former launching an assault on the existing order, the latter emphasizing the creation of an alternative to contemporary public life, distant in time and/or space. Finally, the authors discuss the dangerous potential for alternative spaces online to provide safe havens for hate rhetoric. Drawing from research on online hate sites, the chapter describes five components of these troubling forms of discourse: community, anonymity, outreach, commerce, and information. Balanced by positive examples of how disenfranchised voices have made themselves heard through online communication, this chapter describes the potential for online communication to destabilize the very culture which gave it birth.
 

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An underlying question of this chapter and its two counterparts is this: Can the Internet continue to provide space for individual voices to speak in contrast to the "powers that be" or will it, like so many other media, largely reflect the interests of a dominant few? While students may address this question in any number of ways, we propose a fictional approach. The week before classroom discussion of chapter nine, invite students to write a one to two page short story whose thesis affirms or denies the possibility of the Internet to challenge social order.

The short story need not be judged according to rigorous rules of quality, even though basic rules of spelling, grammar, and composition should be maintained. The purpose of the story is to inspire students to expand upon at least one example or idea addressed in this chapter. The story should be rich with evocative description and should possess at least two well-defined characters whose dialogue allows the reader to draw conclusions about their backgrounds and states of mind. The story can be set in the past, present, or future and can be serious or comical.

On the day of discussion for chapter nine, instructors may wish to divide students into smaller groups of between four and six where students can read their stories to a group of peers. Following the reading of each story in a group, participants should discuss amongst one another the common themes and/or disparate conclusions they reached. They might also be encouraged to select a representative story that will be presented by its author before the class. Note that this selection process is not a competition of writing quality, but rather, an opportunity to share a story that illustrates the tone of the group's conversation. Following the readings of the group-selected stories, the class can discuss the power of fiction to address pertinent issues of public life. This activity provides a nice segue to chapter ten.

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Download a PowerPoint slideshow for this chapter

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To request sample test questions, contact Matthew Smith at <msmith@wittenberg.edu>. [Instructors only. Proof of institutional affiliation will be required.]

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Proyas, A. (Director). (1998). Dark City [Film]. Los Angeles, CA: New Line Cinema.

Dark City is not about Internet communication. In fact, this surreal film noir feels more like a 1940s detective story than a study of alternative online spaces. However, the movie's depiction of twisting buildings that rise and fall according to the whims of "strangers" conducting experiments upon unknowing people illustrates the interlocking definitions of space and place described in this chapter. Cue forward to a scene in which the stranger put their victims to sleep and use moments in which the city becomes a giant, mutating set piece to set up a discussion about the ways in which places of discipline may become spaces of resistance.
 

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