What's Next?

As I've begun developing and researching the content behind my views about debate on YouTube, I reached a few conclusions.

First, that the existence of a site where videos can be universally uploaded and shared with anyone with internet access all over the world, has the ability to completely change the culture of a community. If I attend a tournament and want to tape a debate (regardless of the end goal of that video) I now have to get written permission from the participants, who can't even make that choice for themselves, but instead, are forced to follow a policy set by their coach or their school, for fear that perhaps there might be "another Shanahan incident". The videos that WERE on the internet have, for the most part, been removed. You have to dig deep if you want to find footage about the debate community shot by one of our own.

Second, this change can be best explained through an increased level of impression management by those involved in debate. Erving Goffman best explained this concept through the idea of situationism. That is to say that we all have a role we play, and there were roles that existed for those involved in debate that they comfortably played in the company of those involved in the community, that was disrupted when that footage was broadcast and viewed by those unfamiliar with the activity, not only taking then the role/character act out of context, but misrepresenting it to society as a whole.

Unfortunately, showing through video the LACK of video and disassociation of any sort of personality or sense of identity is a bit difficult. Therefore, my proposal is to study and (hopefully) show what the culture has evolved into- the variety of people and events and encounters that come together and ARE debate. Using the footage that remains for the public to see, coupled with my own work as I attend the last handful of tournaments of the season, I hope to be able to take what was a horrific instance of misrepresentation of the activity, tell the story of debate, and perhaps offer a more cohesive image of who we are as a response to the derogatory claims about the state of activity as laid out by Fort Hays University.