Listserv drama in action

Before I go on, anyone reading this who is not Dan or I must go RIGHT NOW to the Donald Black link on the syllabus and observe how excellently that man is dressed. And coiffed.

Ok, now we can begin.

I was reading the local newspaper today, having my taco in the local taqueria, in between thesis projects, when I noticed a column that was PHENOMENALLY apt for this semester's final project. This mini-article follows another about a recent shooting in front of Laurel Lounge, on MacArthur Blvd, in the middle of the Laurel. Here it is:

Neighborhood Reacts

News of the shooting created an immediate and heated exchange on the Laurel Village listserv. Residents living within blocks of the bar pointed out an ongoing "atmosphere of crime" at the MacArthur Blvd. intersection near the bar and angrily questioned the level of security provided by the owner. Others defended the owner by pointing out that the business participated in no apparent illegal activity and was not responsible for criminal or nuisance activities near the bar that predated his ownership. The charged listserv discussion elevated into demands to stop name-calling and for deleting subscribers for violating listserv guidelines prohibiting abusive language.'

Arising from this were calls to come together as a community and to create a better neighborhood for all. Another subscriber highlighted what was good in the neighborhood— the Saturday farmers market, the "Space" at Laurel Jujitsu, and a range of good and diverse small businesses, retail stores, and eateries.

Some called for participation in the resident walking patrol, Feet on the Street. Neighbors meet Thursdays at 7 p.m., except the second Thursdays of the month, at the Laurel Hardware parking lot (4024 MacArthur) to walk the boulevard, strengthen community ties, and show support for the businesses. Police officers often join the group.

(Source: http://macarthurmetro.org/200911/lma/3768)

This is such a lovely, distilled version of our project!

Keywords I picked out:
-immediate and heated exchange
-residents living within blocks of the bar
-ongoing "atmosphere of crime"
-questioned level of security by owner
--> others defended owner
-demands to stop name-calling
-->deleting subscribers for violating listserv guidelines
-arising from this--"calls to come together and create a better neighborhood for all"
-called for participation in the resident walking patrol

In three short paragraphs, the Metro paints a vivid picture of the arc of this listserv dialogue. Although simplistic and not aimed at theorizing anything, I recognize a similarity between the arc of tension and resolve here, and in our data. At first, there is a general flurry of comments, a generalization of the problem to other issues in the neighborhood, and then people begin to fall into camps. In this case, it was those who criticized the owners, and those who were sympathetic. The "elevation" that is described is a particularly interesting moment; I saw this in our listserv data as well, and it seemed to involve a frenzy of people referring more to other posts than offer new information. As this article describes, eventually some people called for calm and community, and the positivity began emerging. The neighborhood boosting was followed by a concrete suggestion, that people participate in the resident walking patrol.

I'm going to keep this "arc" idea in mind as I continue to work with the data. I'm becoming more and more interested in the "shape" of these conversations.

To come!