Project Type
Poster
Semester (Required)
Spring 2026
Course Title
Honors Seminar II (HON 250)
Course Instructor
Jennifer Wojton
Project Overview/Abstract
By showing how societies reject rational reason due to total faith in a child's alleged purity, the movie, The Hunt, offers a visceral parallel to the contemporary practice of doxing. This connection is crucial in the digital age as it demonstrates how contemporary media ecologies use moral outrage as a tool to bypass due process, turning unreliable emotional tales into irreversible social death sentences.
Due to contemporary digital culture, social media platforms have evolved into what legal professor, Alejandra Castillo Ara, terms a “punitive remedy” or a “digital court”. In order to impose social punishment, this system allows and prompts the dangerous disclosure of personal information before any legal facts are proven. This behavior is motivated by the psychological state known as “moral panic”. According to psychology research professor, Peter Gray, this fear stems from genuine desire to protect children, leading to “selective perception” and a total denial of the objective reality.
This social marginalization is enforced through a process known as “doxing”. Doxing, according to information technology ethics expert, David Douglas, is the deliberate collection and dissemination of personal data with the goal of causing harm or embarrassment. Unverified rumors have lasting social repercussions as a result of this media environment, which prioritizes emotional weight over factual truth.
The Pathetic Pedestal of Perceived Purity: Childhood Innocence as the Catalyst for Digital Lynch Mobs in the Hunt
By showing how societies reject rational reason due to total faith in a child's alleged purity, the movie, The Hunt, offers a visceral parallel to the contemporary practice of doxing. This connection is crucial in the digital age as it demonstrates how contemporary media ecologies use moral outrage as a tool to bypass due process, turning unreliable emotional tales into irreversible social death sentences.
Due to contemporary digital culture, social media platforms have evolved into what legal professor, Alejandra Castillo Ara, terms a “punitive remedy” or a “digital court”. In order to impose social punishment, this system allows and prompts the dangerous disclosure of personal information before any legal facts are proven. This behavior is motivated by the psychological state known as “moral panic”. According to psychology research professor, Peter Gray, this fear stems from genuine desire to protect children, leading to “selective perception” and a total denial of the objective reality.
This social marginalization is enforced through a process known as “doxing”. Doxing, according to information technology ethics expert, David Douglas, is the deliberate collection and dissemination of personal data with the goal of causing harm or embarrassment. Unverified rumors have lasting social repercussions as a result of this media environment, which prioritizes emotional weight over factual truth.