Oprah’s OWN? More Like PWN, Amirite???

Last week’s episode of On The Media had a segment on a documentary about Second Life called Life 2.0. Now, I’m no fan of Second Life. I’ve long been on the record that I don’t get Second Life. I still don’t get it. I know my fellow academics love to write about it but I don’t know why. I mean, I liked Snow Crash as much as the next guy but I still think Second Life is boring.

Regardless, at the end of the On The Media segment they mentioned something I did think was interesting: the Life 2.0 documentary is going to appear on Oprah Winfrey’s Network in August. Now, the low ratings OWN is getting aside, I think it is interesting that this documentary would air on a channel aimed at women rather than one aimed at gamers or one that regularly airs documentaries. They seem to think that this is something that would appeal to their audience.

Watching the trailer, I guess I can see why. It looks like the film focuses on the more extreme aspects of Second Life by featuring stories about two people who met online and left their spouses, some guy who has an avatar of an underage girl, and, of course, someone selling things.

I don’t know if this will appeal to OWN’s target audience or not but I do know I will be tuning in to watch.

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