The following are two paragraphs from NBC's Dateline's report on MySpace:

"It’s a cyber secret teenagers keep from tech-challenged parents who are not as savvy as Margaret. It’s a world where the kids next door can play any role they want. They may not realize everyone with Internet access, including sexual predators, may see the pictures and personal information they post.

When “Dateline” surfed MySpace, we found scenes of binge drinking, apparent drug use, teens posing in underwear, and other members simulating sex, and in some cases even having it. We also found less provocative pages like Shannon’s was, but potentially even more dangerous. Teens listed not only their names, and addresses, but even cell phone numbers and after school schedules. "

The language they use in this report is indicative of a lot of reportage on the online social networking growth. I'm going to highlight a few key points from the above paragraphs.

To begin, note the use of the word "cyber," the word is used in a damning manner, drawing on the fearful implications from earlier days of Internet-based interaction. In a previous post I demonstrated the decreased prevalence of the word "cyberspace" and I don't think it is much of a stretch to assume that "cyber" has followed a similar path. So in choosing to use "cyber" Dateline is making reference to earlier conceptions of the Internet. And one can't ignore the origins of "cyber" being in Gibson's novels. With this in mind "cyber" conjures the images of lawlessness, vigilantism, sexuality, and violence that Gibson associated with the term.

Second is the use of "world" to describe the MySpace social network. The intended implication of this word is an uncontrollable, boundless space: a space where parents cannot influence the actions of their children. And with the assumption that the piece was written for parents, is supposed to make the reader think of releasing their child into a "world" that is not the home. The issue of control is certainly one to be concerned about, but the implications of "world" exaggerate the negative aspects of the perceived lack of control, which, in a piece with a different ideological outlook might well be called freedom.

Furthering the contrast between the safe home versus the uncontrollable world, the sentence continues with "...a world where the kids next door can play any role they want." Dateline is now, without a doubt, constructing the image of a neighborhood. Specifically they construct an image of a neighborhood consisting of safe homes that have been infiltrated by the uncontrollable world. Children playing next door and the cyber world where anything can happen are suddenly combined in Dateline's language.

Then there's this sentence: "They may not realize everyone with Internet access, including sexual predators, may see the pictures and personal information they post." First of all this is equivalent to saying that anyone with a car, including drunks, can run you over. Yet, we still leave our houses. Second, I doubt there are many people, even children, that create profiles without recognizing that they are making it for an audience. In fact, that is the very purpose of these networks, the very reason why people join: to make their information known to anyone who wants to access it. Children should certainly be made aware that anyone can access this information if they aren't already, but the process of conveying this information is one that the user has a great amount of control over. In fact the degree of control over how identity is projected over these networks is exemplified by the very fact that pedophiles are able to trick children into trusting them. I don't want to be understood as in anyway defending anything that would promote the actions of pedophiles, but the existence of, and participation in, social networking sites does not inherently lead to pedophilia. There is a greater degree of control over the projection of identity that Dateline portrays.

The first sentence of the second paragraph begins with: "When Dateline surfed MySpace..." It is clear from this that the reader of this piece is meant to trust Dateline with the ability to surf these dangerous, lawless, uncontrollable networks. While the previous paragraph set up the image of the invasive and corrupting social networking sites, this second paragraph has already provided a solution for the reader. Their only hope in combatting this new terror is to rely on television to investigate and set things straight.

This seems to come across as a new versus old media feud at first glance. Dateline against MySpace. But really it may come down to old versus old given Rupert Murdoch's purchase of MySpace. Nevertheless, the language used in this article typifies the fearful view of social networking sites. It is chosen to make innocent users seem powerless and predators all-powerful, a reversal of readers' perceptions of their offline lives. And in the midst of this constructed crisis of control, Dateline positions itself as decent people's last hope. Pedophiles can't get your children through Dateline after all, and who would want to enter such a dangerous unpredictable world when you have the safety of NBC.