Image: Shutterstock It begins with a sickly child, as so many stories do. This week saw two news stories which tested the “viral” potential of bodily suffering. The first was that of Victoria Wilcher, the three-year-old survivor of a pit bull attack who was asked to leave a branch of KFC because of her “scary” facial scarring. The narrative lends itself to social media: hate on the giant fast food chain, side with the child victim, then share your outrage on Twitter and Facebook. Then a second story surfaced: after investigation the entire account was shown to be a hoax. Whatever the parents’ intentions, they must have known their daughter would attract online attention. Her story coincides with another, yet more sinister one: that of Garnett Spears, […] Read More