Available Free at FlowTV (6.8)

The incident at the University of Florida last week brought many issues to the forefront.  The censorship and torture of a student is only one of those issues.  Horrified as I am by the events, I am interested in the responses in mainstream media that whitewashed the event, not unlike the response to protests in the 1960s and 70s, and the refusal of University administration to take responsibility (also like the earlier protest movements).  Now, however, the event and the questions it raises have been brought inescapably to the forefront by responses in networked media, with images and sounds that refuse the simplistic and reactionary responses by established voices.  More than anything else, this event tells us that (1) protest will never be only in “new” media, and (2) that emergent media forms work through a sophisticated approach to conflict, not consensus, in which community is a process of change and contestation.