This is a bit long, but it touches on one aspect of blogging that drives me nuts... bloggers who block people who make comments that counter the post. http://tinyurl.com/3yha6q
Yes, that's pretty irritating. I think most of the point of soliciting comments is to get a dialog going, to solicit other people's views for the benefit of everyone. Without that, it's just one-way communication; someone with a megaphone seeking validation. I'm not sure what can be done about this aside from ignoring such blogs. I think it's perfectly fair to refuse to debate with someone who refuses to consider others' points of view.
I work for A Modest Proposal, and one of the greatest satisfactions for me is that our comment threads see lots of fierce dialog. It's often very enlightening.
I'm actually more struck by the article's concern about techish bloggers covering *all* news with a cynical and possibly undereducated approach. I too am a little worried about that. It's important to examine the source of any story you hear, but reading news properly is a learnt skill, just like writing news properly -- they both have to do with recognization of newsworthiness -- and I worry that less people have these skills today, producers and consumers alike (and aren't they largely the same now?).
Throughout this explosion of new media, it might be tough to find news sources staffed by people with these skills, because these have historically been centralized agencies with centralized journalistic training and quality control; and that centralization is kind of antithetical to new media. But, as commenters on this article point out, lots of bloggers have good news judgment as well - it's just a matter of finding them. Hopefully most people will continue to determine which are the best sources, and listen to them; being properly informed has always been a mostly personal responsibility.
1 comment:
Yes, that's pretty irritating. I think most of the point of soliciting comments is to get a dialog going, to solicit other people's views for the benefit of everyone. Without that, it's just one-way communication; someone with a megaphone seeking validation. I'm not sure what can be done about this aside from ignoring such blogs. I think it's perfectly fair to refuse to debate with someone who refuses to consider others' points of view.
I work for A Modest Proposal, and one of the greatest satisfactions for me is that our comment threads see lots of fierce dialog. It's often very enlightening.
I'm actually more struck by the article's concern about techish bloggers covering *all* news with a cynical and possibly undereducated approach. I too am a little worried about that. It's important to examine the source of any story you hear, but reading news properly is a learnt skill, just like writing news properly -- they both have to do with recognization of newsworthiness -- and I worry that less people have these skills today, producers and consumers alike (and aren't they largely the same now?).
Throughout this explosion of new media, it might be tough to find news sources staffed by people with these skills, because these have historically been centralized agencies with centralized journalistic training and quality control; and that centralization is kind of antithetical to new media. But, as commenters on this article point out, lots of bloggers have good news judgment as well - it's just a matter of finding them. Hopefully most people will continue to determine which are the best sources, and listen to them; being properly informed has always been a mostly personal responsibility.
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