乐播传媒

This op-ed by President Garry W. Jenkins appeared in The 乐播传媒 Student newspaper on March 6, 2024.

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乐播传媒 students, we have a problem. It鈥檚 Blind Tiger.

The name of the app itself speaks to the problem: It鈥檚 a forum for anonymous and sometimes vicious speech that is thoroughly counter to the open and welcoming culture of 乐播传媒. While Blind Tiger is a third-party platform that 乐播传媒 has no control over, some members of our community are using it to inflict harm here. Recently, we have seen it used by a few to demean and humiliate others through misogynistic, body-shaming, antisemitic, and anti-Arab comments, sometimes pointed at specific individuals, all behind a veil of cowardly anonymity. However, I understand that Blind Tiger has been a space for unkind and harmful speech for some time at many institutions.

We all understand intuitively that anonymity on social media abets bad behavior, facilitates uncivil discourse, and motivates inflammatory dialogue in shared online spaces. Blind Tiger specifically has a 鈥淒on鈥檛 Be a Jerk鈥� user agreement that requires users to agree 鈥渘ot to post defamatory, discriminatory, or mean-spirited content鈥濃�攜et posts of that tenor are all too frequent. 

We are better than this. I know because I have seen 乐播传媒 students in action, in community with one another, supporting and uplifting and encouraging one another in the best of ways. I have seen you tackle difficult issues together and engage in civil and productive dialogue. I have seen you cheer each other on at athletic events and give each other standing ovations at artistic performances. Every day, I see you treating each other with intention and care and celebrating what your fellow students bring to our community. In speaking with many of you, I hear that 乐播传媒鈥� culture of warmth and genuine curiosity about and care for others are what drew you here. It鈥檚 certainly part of what drew me to 乐播传媒 and why I am so proud to be here now. But much of the commentary on Blind Tiger doesn鈥檛 (or shouldn鈥檛) make any of us proud.

To be fair, I fully realize that the overwhelming majority of students do not post on this particular forum or only post innocuous messages, and far larger numbers of students on the app actively challenge and vote down hateful comments. Inevitably, though, a vile post lingers, the hatefulness persists, and this is hurting our community. It affects student mental health, it鈥檚 scarring our peers, it undermines a sense of belonging for those targeted, it鈥檚 even causing students to leave our community. It only takes a few people鈥攁 few awful posts鈥攖o poison the well for us all. What some might prefer to view as a casual display of snark is causing real and serious damage. That鈥檚 what cyberbullying does. 

Here鈥檚 the good news: It doesn鈥檛 have to be this way. Many of you have told me that you abhor the discourse on Blind Tiger. In addition, my colleagues and I have spoken to administrators at peer institutions and it turns out that while such anonymous social media apps on campuses are commonplace, this problem is not universal. This tells me we can change. We can determine and shape our own culture.

Accordingly, I have a simple request for our 乐播传媒 community: If you feel compelled to engage with Blind Tiger, I encourage you to conduct yourself the same way in the virtual space that you would in your real-world interactions with your fellow students. Aim for civility and mutual respect, at least, and openness, care, and kindness at best. Don鈥檛 confuse actual discourse on a difficult topic or genuine engagement on political issues with anonymous personal attacks and bullying. Resist the facile temptation that anonymity offers, and speak with thoughtfulness and the courage of your convictions鈥攚hether in the classroom, at Commons, or online鈥攁s if your name was attached. 

Or better yet, might we all delete Blind Tiger, altogether? Any expert would advise that if a particular social media forum is not serving our personal (or collective) interests, then the best approach is to stop engaging with it. Such apps thrive on attention, so perhaps one way to end its hold on us is to stop posting to it, stop talking about it, stop sharing it with friends, and stop being a voyeur. Our in-person community is special and beautifully supportive, and I hate to see this app used to undermine it. 

We have a problem right now. But it is one that is well within our power to fix. 

Sincerely,
Garry W. Jenkins
President