Comments - for and against

Friday, 17th July 2009

Most newspaper and magazine publishers like the idea of interactivity. This analyst thinks they're wrong:

I'm an information junkie. I use my work as a media consultant as an excuse, but anyone observing me would think I’m constantly feeding some horrible addiction as I fiddle with my iPhone, surf the Web, whipsaw the TV remote between various news networks, and skate up and down the news-radio dial...But... I’ve concluded there’s one outlet that should be abandoned: those comment forums at the end of articles on newspaper websites. The level of commentary demeans and devalues the very product newspapers should be promoting; sniping, misinformation, and insensitivity that would not be tolerated in the newspaper that hosts the forums are regularly posted, seemingly encouraged, and even granted an aura of legitimacy...
By the way, don’t bother posting any comments directed to me when this article appears on the Web. I won’t see them. Instead, go start your own website or blog or buy a legitimate newspaper, or write a letter to the editor, or an op-ed.

The Columbia Journalism Review's blogger takes the commenters' side. As one of them says, some sites attract interesting and well-informed contributors; others tend to be colonised by people who are either bores or borderline unhinged, especially on the subject of race and immigration. Some bloggers enjoy those rumbling noises. I don't.