Do you really hate bloggers?
Question: I heard you on the Bill Good show this morning. You were quite interested in those people who were commenting “who cares about the petting zoo animals, that’s what we do with them anyway – eat them”. My question is when did you take note of bloggers and on line commenters. Last time I heard you speak on CBC Radio last fall you consider bloggers nuts and crazy and not to be taken seriously.
Answer: Yes, I must really hate bloggers and that’s why I 1. Have a blog 2. Read other blogs 3. Read comments on blogs 4. Encourage comments on my blog 5. Talk in public about the way blogs have given writers like me a great new way to communicate with readers.
Okay, my apologies for the juvenile sarcasm. But, to answer the question. I can’t remember which CBC program I was on talking about this, but I suspect it was on a panel about social media with Jian Gomeshi. Likely I expressed my concern, as I do elsewhere, about some of the comments and some of the blogs I see out there, which have emerged in the new social-media world, that seem to be mostly about some very frustrated and unhappy people working out their problems by publicly insulting anyone and everyone.
I’ve said that I think blogs and blog posters and tweeters are potential great new resources, as well as correspondents, for MSM reporters like me, because they put us in touch with a bigger world. The biggest risk you run as a reporter (politician, business person, teacher, etc etc) is settling into a comfortable world of people who all share your opinions and losing your capacity to understand why other people think differently.
Blogs put us in touch with a bigger world. Some of that is informative. I’ve learned so much from people on this blog and I’ve learned from other bloggers. But there is a problem in the blog world that, if there isn’t at least some kind of monitoring of conversations and a lot of engagement from the person in control of the site, comments can turn into a cesspool of stupid, vulgar, ignorant rants. Good site owners are learning that they can’t just put stuff up and let everyone go to it. It becomes Lord of the Flies (for examples, see the comments sections on even high-end elite media sites if there is no one moderating those comments).
Hope that clarifies thing.