Lance Dodd
Media Lit-Com155-133
Spring 2011
Catfish Analysis
Catfish is a very interesting movie. At its core the movie shows the power of current democratized media. Using platforms like Facebook a person can adopt whatever persona a person wants. In the movie Catfish, Angela Faccio is able to take on the role of her younger daughter Megan Faccio. She is even able to produce paintings and claim that it is the work of her young daughter Abbey. The movie also forecasts the dangers of the amorphous and anonymous nature of the online world. When people can be anybody, how can you trust who is who? Nev established a relationship with an entire family without ever knowing who they really are; he developed deep feeling for a woman he has never met.
In a way Nev represents a majority of us. When we go to sites like Facebook, we have a tendency to take things at face value. When we are interacting with people either online or in real life, unless they are acting suspicious we do not over analyze what a person says. What happened to Nev is an example as to what Andrew Keene thought was wrong with Web 2.0. Andrew Keene believed that the onset of Web 2.0 severely impaired factual integrity. The intermediaries that made sure information was true do not exist. People are able to say things and they are presented as fact. Angela was able to present herself as anyone without anyone being able to dispute it. Only through Nev’s Facebook detective work was he able to find out the truth.
However, I do not believe that democratized media should be done away with. On the contrary despite the events in the movie, I believe that it is to everyone’s benefit that people have a voice. That they can craft whatever identity they want in order to get their message across. Sometimes anonymity is a good thing, as it allows you to state your case without fear of reprisal. However, people like Angela can abuse the system, even if it was not malicious. Putting Andrew Keene’s fear aside, I believe there can be a middle ground. People can craft their own identity, but everyone should be careful and aware that people may not be who they say they are.
