Introduction to SL Media

National Public Radio’s Science Friday has a sizeable audience, and is indicative of the RL media experimentation going on inside Second Life. Sony/BMGdebuts and showcases real life artists on Media Island. CBS’s CSI show brought TV viewers in-world to help solve a crime mystery by inviting them to its virtual forensics lab during one episode. HBO purchased a documentary that was filmed by a real Hollywood producer, Douglas Gayeton, and his entire series Molotov Alva and His Search for the Creator was produced in-world as machinima. The show was broadcast on cable, and is available online via Cinemax’s Web site. Its producers, talent, and overall team seem to be mainly comprised of men, after a review of the credits. Women media makers, however, have found a creative outlet on Second Life Cable Network (SLCN-TV), whereas others like Dr. Angela Thomas, author, lecturer, and SL builder, designs interactive sites that serve as stand-alone educational projects. She launched in October 2008 one SL project, Foul Whisperings, Strange Matters, based on William Shakespeare’s MacBeth and Ray Bradbury’s 1962 classic Something Wicked This Way Come:

“The brainchild of Dr. Angela Thomas (Anya Ixchel in SL), a senior lecturer in English and Arts Education at the University of Sydney, the project is a stunning example of the combination of imaginative and evocative building and thoughtful (and thought-provoking) multi-layered educational content disguised as a wickedly creepy interactive carnival ride. She says "it took me 3 or 4 hours to do the initial designs, and then 6 months to make it.” (Ludwig, 2008)

In SL, there is a growing audience for movies, TV programs and music that are either produced in-world, or are broadcast in this virtual space. Some enjoy experiencing these mediated activities with their SL friends, partners, and colleagues. There is this sense of engagement with others and one’s avatar, as one watches her “virtual double” view in-world televised programs or movies. SL newspapers report on the art, music, and media entertainment. SL radio stations play the popular icons and newly rising stars on streamed stations that play in-world and on the Web. This discussion focuses on the rising women media owners, producers and writers – the content providers – who might offer a gendered slant to an issue or event. I begin by asking, who are the women of SL, and who are those women making media inside this virtual mediated tapestry.