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
ii
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
iii
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
iv
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
7.1. WHAT THE LITERATURE SUGGESTS ................................................................................................... 124
7.2. ANTI-RACIST WEBSITE LONGEVITY ................................................................................................... 125
7.3. ANTI-RACIST WEBSITE ASSESSMENT ................................................................................................. 127
7.4. ANTI-RACIST WEBSITE QUESTIONNAIRE............................................................................................ 129
7.4.1. Coverage ..................................................................................................................................... 131
7.4.2. Sampling...................................................................................................................................... 132
7.4.3. Response and nonresponse.......................................................................................................... 132
7.4.4. Measurement error...................................................................................................................... 137
7.4.5. Design features............................................................................................................................ 139
7.4.6. Survey software ........................................................................................................................... 140
7.4.7. Development................................................................................................................................ 142
7.5. SUMMARY......................................................................................................................................... 147
8. RESULTS................................................................................................................................................. 148
8.1. ANTI-RACIST WEBSITE LONGEVITY ................................................................................................... 148
8.1.1. Sites ............................................................................................................................................. 148
8.1.2. Dead sites .................................................................................................................................... 149
8.1.3. Live sites...................................................................................................................................... 149
8.1.4. Longevity analysis ....................................................................................................................... 151
8.2. ANTI-RACIST WEBSITE ASSESSMENT ................................................................................................. 151
8.2.1. Website purpose .......................................................................................................................... 151
8.2.2. Website assessment...................................................................................................................... 153
8.2.3. Assessment analysis..................................................................................................................... 155
8.3. ANTI-RACIST WEBSITE QUESTIONNAIRE............................................................................................ 156
8.3.1. Administration of the questionnaire ............................................................................................ 156
8.3.2. Response rate .............................................................................................................................. 158
8.3.3. Measurement error...................................................................................................................... 159
8.3.4. Questionnaire administration summary ...................................................................................... 160
8.3.5. Responses .................................................................................................................................... 160
8.3.6. Discussion and analysis .............................................................................................................. 167
8.4. ANALYSIS OF ALL DATA.................................................................................................................... 174
8.5. SUMMARY......................................................................................................................................... 176
9. CONCLUSIONS...................................................................................................................................... 177
9.1. FINDINGS FROM THE LITERATURE ..................................................................................................... 177
9.2. DATA RESULTS RELATED TO LITERATURE FINDINGS ......................................................................... 179
9.3. RESEARCH IN A COMPLEX SYSTEM.................................................................................................... 181
9.4. UNDERSTANDING BUT NOT PREDICTION............................................................................................ 183
9.5. RESEARCH QUESTION........................................................................................................................ 184
9.6. RESULTS TO BE TRANSFORMATIVE.................................................................................................... 185
9.7. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH ................................................................................... 187
9.8. CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................... 188
BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................................................. 190
APPENDIX A .................................................................................................................................................... 234
APPENDIX B .................................................................................................................................................... 236
APPENDIX C .................................................................................................................................................... 238
APPENDIX D .................................................................................................................................................... 239
v
List of figures
Figure 1. Website longevity………………………………………………………………………….148
Figure 2. Live sites located…………………………………………………………………….…….150
Figure 3. Type of racism addressed………………………………………………………………….152
Figure 4. Represented regions…………………………………………………………………….....153
Figure 5. Responses per day…………………………………………………………………………158
Figure 6. Organisation responsible for website………………………………………………….….161
Figure 7. Represented regions…………………………………………………………………...…..161
Figure 8. Website focus. .…………………………………………………………………………….162