Experimentum

I've written and assembled these research notes from my two-year study into media susceptibility as a result of experiencing nearly six years of group stalking, harassment and defamation which began during my overseas travels. Being defamed online and seeing real-life behavioural changes in people’s interactions with me, I was intrigued. I researched existing sources and located a wealth of information on the biological basis of human aggression but the data was not sufficiently individualised for my purposes. I wanted to investigate human malleability and determine the effect of messages transmitted via mass media. I also needed data that was specific to my particular situation. I designed a randomised double blind visual sociological study. I drew on the defamation - mainly racist and sexist attacks - I’d experienced to assist in constructing both the habitus and the fields in which I would interact. I used image, reflexivity, participant observation, symbolic interactionism and objective observations. I sought to further understand the impact of diverse mass media on behaviours and to get an idea of the susceptibility ratio. Through the study’s visual sociological component (a dramatic performance I gave as I was being stalked), Social Media (my Twitter account) and textual elements such as articles (available on my website) and books (available online via mainstream booksellers), I observed a range of responses to different media, logged the most common behaviours and using both study data and post field work observations arrived at a general psychological susceptibility matrix including bias toward certain media and corresponding rationale. Beyond that, I conducted several brief studies to answer secondary questions that arose during the course of the research. My observations and findings are outlined in this book.