Comments Please

OJ1#4

Once upon a time impassioned citizens wrote letters to their newspapers Letter to the Editor section. They wrote in about stories and local issues that stirred their emotions, made their blood boil and tugged at their heart strings. The newspaper would publish a select number of the many letters they received and only those would be published in the following day’s news. Letters to the editor still exist but online news allows unlimited comments and news organisations readily encourage news consumers to comment online. News organisations and media bloggers want to know what the public think, or at least appear to.

Opening news stories up for direct commentary and criticism online leads to a range of new issues. One of those issues is who will monitor comments posted online. Some news websites publish only approved comments, which are screened before they are posted. Others, allow for comments to be added immediately and later checked. Nearly all news websites require the person commenting to submit some personal details before submitting, such as their location and email address.

People are often less accountable for their actions online, as some feel it’s not as ‘real’. Posting online allows people to anonymously share their opinions and encourages them to communicate with fellow commentators. The positive side of this is that the platform means more people than ever are sharing their views, thus widening the range of backgrounds and peoples represented within commentaries. The negative side, is people are more likely to be rude or outlandish when there is little accountability. While debate, is useful and necessary in democracy, people tend to find with each other via online commentary, which takes away from the essential and important elements of the story being reported.

Online commentary should continue to be encouraged, but news organisations worried about fighting users and crude remarks need to create a system which creates more individual user accountability if they wish to address this issue. It is also vital News organisations allow a wide range of comments, without much censoring of opinions, as it’s the media asking for comments, the media should be able to handle them, regardless of political and personal beliefs.