Mar

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Briggs Chapter 10

March 8, 2012 | Leave a Comment

One of the greatest assets available to the modern journalist is their audience.  With news and media becoming increasingly web-based and social, it is becoming more conversational, according to Briggs.  Audiences want to comment on published material, and there are great benefits to allowing them to do so.

In some cases, they can be a free editing service, correcting things from minor spelling errors to larger informational errors, which then allows the writer to fix them.  This is not to say the writer can or should submit sloppy, poorly-researched work.  It just means that if there is a mistake, it can be mended immediately instead of waiting a day for the next edition of the newspaper to run.

Audiences can offer interesting viewpoints that help build a dialogue among readers and, if they wish to participate, the writer (while always remembering to avoid compromising their journalistic integrity by taking a side).  Comments can enrich a story by including thoughts from a wide variety of people, allowing the reader to explore many different sides before choosing their own.

There is, however, a dark side to comment sections.  If the comments are not moderated, they can quickly become a dark, filthy haven for hateful, racist, sexist, or otherwise bigoted and unintelligent banter between trolls who came to make personal attacks against people they don’t know, not contribute to an ongoing dialogue.  While people should be allowed to speak their opinion in comment sections, comments that serve only as inflammatory agents should be quickly pruned to keep readers from getting caught up in a vitriolic squabble.



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