AMP

"there is nothing more exhilarating than when a fem is ripped from one state of beauty and callously, speedily thrust into another. watch her wear her new look like a pair of overtight support hose! observe her sloppy mannerisms seep through the mask! see the neatly repackaged bad girl image jaggedly not-gel with the nicelady girl beneath! ooh! makeover shows are so much fun that they actually make me blush." –Suki Kent

Amp has a similar look and feel to a teenage fanzine except it has a bit more of an edge to it. The fluidity and object removal attributes of the net make it much easier to say things in a much more aggressive way than what is generally associated with print media. If one were to put something in print that draws a lot of fire or is heavily criticized, the proof exists of this document because it is on paper as an object. One could, for instance, bring this document to a court room and use it as proof in a legal proceeding. The document exists as a static object and it is not possible to alter or retract it in any way. When something is written on-line, it can be altered continually simply by replacing pages. It is really impossible to use the text on the Internet as proof of anything. Because of this, it tends to make writers much freer with their speech as anything can be retracted or changed at anytime without any proof existing of the original text. Everything can be altered forever with a simple push of the delete button. This phenomenon carries many advantages toward the freedom of speech but many drawbacks as well. One such drawback is reliability. Book and magazine publishers have traditionally gone to great pains to present accurate and reliable information so as not to lose the respect of their readership or even be sued by a reader. Also, what is to stop someone from creating an ezine that is on the subject of child pornography or one that promotes racial violence? There have been websites that present plans for making pipe bombs and even atomic weapon construction. Although many Internet Service Providers will try to filter and shut down offensive websites, someone can easily create their own server and present anything that they want. There are many questions concerning the right to publish for the world to see on the net, and answers become related to very complex issues concerning freedom of speech. For example, one could pass a law in the US that bans racially violent websites, but in another country, these sites might remain perfectly legal. Because the Internet is a worldwide medium, laws would have to be passed internationally, and this seems highly unlikely at this time. Even if laws were passed, it is still possible for a hacker to illegally place webpages on someone else’s server and never claim responsibility. This can be thought of as a form of e-terrorism. The explosion of online zines that challenge all of these issues is only going to increase from here.