IP: Sanity - well more sane -- CNN - Media coverage of

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Date: Mon, 31 Mar 97 09:30:34 EDT
From: "Keith Bonney" <kbonney () imcsmtpgty imcinc com>
To: farber () cis upenn edu


     Dave,
     Been reading on IP about the media hype on the Net & cults, et al.
     Looks like CNN is taking a more down to earth approach.
     From the CNN WEB site.
     Keith
     
          ***  
     
      Cult's Internet connection sparks fears of growing trend
     
      March 29, 1997
      Web posted at: 9:15 a.m. EST 
     
      From Correspondent Greg LeFevre 
     
                  SAN FRANCISCO
     (CNN) -- The news of the deaths of 39 Heaven's Gate members has 
     sparked waves of chat on the Internet. 
     
     Many are mourning the loss of life while others
     are fearful the Internet itself, with it anonymity
     and a lack of community, is helping to draw people to cults. 
     
      Others, however, are shouting to anyone who will listen, that this
      story is not about the Internet at all. 
     
      "Reporters keep calling me and asking if the Internet is to blame
      for this," says Karen Coyle, western regional director for
      Computer Users for Social Responsibility. "Of course the Internet
      isn't to blame for it -- any more than the comet is to blame." 
     
      Coyle believes fear of the unknown is magnifying distrust of
      cyberspace among computer illiterates. Many people are afraid
      that computers, like cults, could somehow control them. Mix the
      two together, and you've got a potent combination. 
     
      "Less than half of our households
      have a computer. Only a third of
      those log on. So most people see
      this as being mysterious
      technology," Coyle says. 
     
      And just because Heaven's Gate
      published its bizarre rants online
      doesn't mean anyone actually read
      it. 
     
      "There's between 30 to 40 million Web pages out there. They
      could have done just as well to go out to the San Diego bluffs and
      throw a message in a bottle," Coyle says. 
     
      Blaming the messenger
     
      Online veterans say blaming the 'Net misses the point. 
     
      "It's a question of the people using it, not the technology itself,"
      says Russ Mitchell, managing editor of Wired magazine. "Any
      technology can be used for good or ill for propaganda purposes or
      for edification purposes." 
     
      In reality, chat runs from the serious to the silly. 
     
      "A lot of these are just pranksters," HotWired chat host Jennifer
      Eno says of her chat room.  (116K/11 sec. AIFF or WAV
      sound) 
     
      Some examples: 
     
      "Is this the place where I can release myself from my container?"
      writes one participant. 
     
      "Hello to all aliens," writes another. 
     
      But even in the humor, there runs an undercurrent of loss and
      loneliness. 
     
        "It's an interesting thing to watch
        people go through thought processes
        and try to figure out what's going on,"
        said Sabrina Modell of the Whole
        Earth Network. 
     
        "People are commenting that we are
        a society of strangers, that we live
      more and more in urban areas, that we don't have a sense of family
      and community," said D. Allen of the Whole Earth Networks. 
     
      Warranted or not, the connection between the Internet and cults
      has frightened some parents beyond reason, said Pam Dixon,
      author of "Take Charge Computing for Teens and Parents." 
     
      The author, whose home is only a few miles from the house where
      the cult members died Wednesday, said she's been mobbed at the
      gym by parents who are worried about their children. 
     
      "I'm hearing a lot of comments from terrified parents that this is a
      computer cult. But actually it's not a computer cult. This is a cult
      who happened to have a Web site." 
     
        
     
     
      Related story:
     
           Religious group paid in advance for Web site - March 29,
           1997 
     
      Related site: 
     
      Note: Pages will open in a new browser window 
     
           Heaven's Gate 
     
          External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.
     
     
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