View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by RMIT Research Repository RACIST DISINFORMATION ON THE WEB: THE ROLE OF ANTI- RACIST SITES IN PROVIDING BALANCE A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Sally A. Skinner B.A.Hons Grad Dip Arts (Aboriginal Studies and Race Relations) Grad Dip Hons (Information Science) School of Business Information Technology Business Portfolio RMIT University June 2007 Declaration: I certify that except where due acknowledgement has been made, the work is that of the author alone; the work has not been submitted previously, in whole or in part, to qualify for any other academic award; the content of the thesis is the result of work which has been carried out since the official commencement date of the approved research program; and, any editorial work, paid or unpaid, carried out by a third party is acknowledged. Sally A. Skinner ii Table of Contents 1. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 2 1.1. BACKGROUND ....................................................................................................................................... 2 1.2. RESEARCH QUESTION ............................................................................................................................ 3 1.3. RESEARCH APPROACH ........................................................................................................................... 3 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................................................... 5 2.1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................... 5 2.2. LITERATURE ......................................................................................................................................... 6 2.2.1. Racism............................................................................................................................................. 6 2.2.2. Internet .......................................................................................................................................... 10 2.2.3. Racism on the Internet................................................................................................................... 11 2.2.4. Disinformation on the Web............................................................................................................ 12 2.2.5. Racist disinformation on the Web.................................................................................................. 13 2.2.6. Censorship of the Web................................................................................................................... 14 2.2.7. Balance on the Web....................................................................................................................... 16 2.3. CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................................... 16 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................. 18 3.1. TRANSDISCIPLINARY APPROACH ........................................................................................................ 18 3.2. METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................................................. 19 3.3. RESEARCH STRATEGY ......................................................................................................................... 24 3.4. SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................................... 26 4. KEY CONCEPTS...................................................................................................................................... 28 4.1. RACISM ............................................................................................................................................... 28 4.2. ANTI -RACISM ...................................................................................................................................... 52 4.3. DISINFORMATION ................................................................................................................................ 57 4.4. WEB .................................................................................................................................................... 57 4.4.1. Web disinformation ....................................................................................................................... 59 4.4.2. Examples of Web disinformation................................................................................................... 67 4.4.3. Dealing with Web disinformation.................................................................................................. 71 4.5. SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................................... 72 5. RACIST DISINFORMATION ON THE WEB ...................................................................................... 73 5.1. RACISM ON THE WEB .......................................................................................................................... 73 5.1.1. Categories of racism on Web ........................................................................................................ 78 5.1.2. Tactics of racist websites............................................................................................................... 82 5.2. DEALING WITH RACISM ON THE WEB .................................................................................................. 84 5.2.1. Filters ............................................................................................................................................ 84 5.2.2. Rating ............................................................................................................................................ 88 5.2.3. Legislation - censorship ................................................................................................................ 89 5.2.4. Service agreements........................................................................................................................ 95 5.2.5. Free speech ................................................................................................................................... 97 5.3. WHAT IS BEING ADDRESSED ?............................................................................................................ 101 5.4. EDUCATION ...................................................................................................................................... 102 5.5. SUMMARY ......................................................................................................................................... 104 6. BALANCE ON THE WEB..................................................................................................................... 105 6.1. ANTI -RACISM ON THE WEB ............................................................................................................... 105 6.2. BALANCING RACIST DISINFORMATION .............................................................................................. 108 6.3. SEARCH ENGINES AND BALANCE ....................................................................................................... 109 6.4. SEARCH SKILLS AND BALANCE ......................................................................................................... 111 6.5. UTILITY AND BALANCE ..................................................................................................................... 112 6.6. WEBSITE EVALUATION ...................................................................................................................... 113 6.7. CRITERIA FOR ASSESSING SITE RELIABILITY ...................................................................................... 115 6.7.1. Responsibility / Authority ............................................................................................................ 115 6.7.2. Accuracy...................................................................................................................................... 119 6.7.3. Objectivity ................................................................................................................................... 120 iii 6.7.4. Currency...................................................................................................................................... 120 6.7.5. Coverage ..................................................................................................................................... 121 6.7.6. Other issues unique to the Web that influence evaluation........................................................... 121 6.8. SUMMARY ......................................................................................................................................... 123 7. DATA COLLECTION............................................................................................................................ 124