By Marisa Pjerrou
When Andy Warhol once predicted that everyone would one day get their
15 minutes of fame, media such as television, film, and the printed
news mostly existed as separate entities - in contrast to the mass
convergence of media that we are experiencing today. In recalling
Marshall McCluhan's infamous statement that "the medium is the
message" - which conveyed the notion of human and media interdependence,
as well as that of the media itself taking on a life of its own -
the amplification of the old system of isolated modes of media production
from the time of Warhol's prediction to its current state of convergence
is more evident. Warhol's prediction, as well, becomes amplified in
light of convergent media. Rather than individuals being allotted
15 minutes of fame, the Internet permits individuals 24 hours a day,
7 days a week of "fame": the notion of fame itself even
gets turned inside out by webcam sites that transform private, regular
home life into entertainment for public consumption.
Whether one is witnessing authentic, natural behavior at web cam
sites, or enhanced behavior for the benefit of the audience is a question
that the history of documentary filmmaking has long addressed. The
first credited feature-length documentary, Nanook of the North
(1922), had director Robert Flaherty using fake igloos exteriors and
telling the Inuit/Eskimo subjects to modify their actual walrus-hunting
methods for purposes of the film's appearance. Similarly, current
day documentary-type fare such as the popular CBS television show
Survivor or MTV's Real World put precedence on dramatic
entertainment value above all else. Editing is used to exaggerate
or create dramatic protagonist/antagonist situations, when in actuality,
none may even exist.
Jennicam (http://www.jennicam.org)
is one of the original webcam sites that started the Internet trend
of ordinary people exploiting webcam voyeurism to become self-made
celebrities. "Modesty" certainly isn't a word that comes
to mind when exploring the egocentric world of Jennifer Ringley at
her jennicam site; in fact, "conceited" would probably be
an understatement. Besides the jennicam, there is a videostreamed
jennishow, an extensive photo gallery of Ringley, including semi-nude
portraits, journals, and of course archives of everything. Yet shameless
self-promotion is probably what makes Ringley's site successful. If
the jennicam just depicted Ringley alone at home, playing with her
cats, would people bother to watch? Rather it would seem to be Ringley's
openness about her sexuality and the drama in her life - such as nabbing
a friend's fiancé - that generates return visits. The blurry
distinction between Ringley's private and public lives in her 4-5
year old project leave one wondering whether the camera has come to
dictate the personal decisions in her life, or rather her life "performance."
Ringley is a hard act to follow; not just for her self-aggrandizing
content, but also for her web design presentation. Hence, the Beckie
of http://www.beckie.com/ pales
in comparison. There is absolutely no sense of design whatsoever at
this awful-looking webcam site crammed full of advertisements; moreover,
the webcam doesn't even work. If you're going to erect a shrine of
self webcam site for all the world to see, you would ostensibly put
a little effort into the design of it. From scanning Beckie's gallery
of photos (which of course include a good collection of self-portraits)
and her exhaustive list of personal information, one gathers that
she is a 20 year old college student in British Columbia, Canada who
paradoxically describes herself as a devout Christian, yet seems to
have a penchant for tattoos (a photo of the tattoo on her foot is
provided at the site), body piercings, punk and goth music, and boozing
it up now and then. She also reveals a little too much of herself:
her birth date, home town, current town, college name, type of work
place and the fact that she uses public transportation are all listed
on her bio; she even lists the name of her favorite bar which is around
the corner from her "cute little condo." The website has
a chat and poetry section which are filled with postings by Beckie's
dozens of male fans who flatter her left and right. One set of anti-Beckie
postings by a person sounding an awful lot like a potential stalker
are unwisely confronted by Beckie; one of her male fans even politely
warns her that it's not a smart thing to acknowledge the negative
posts. This rather frightening correspondence between the incredibly
clueless Beckie and her anti-fan illustrates some of the potential
dangers of webcam sites. Is Internet celebritydom really worth the
price of having strangers, and possibly weirdos know too much personal
info about you? I think not, but I doubt that ambitious, brazen and
fame-seeking individuals such as Jennifer Ringley really care.