Impartiality – A way to controll the troll
Perhaps I’m slow on the lingo, but it was only last night that I heard of the word troll, to refer to all those anonymous people we know and love who spend their time leaving abusive messages on comment boards. (don’t get any ideas!)
It got me thinking because in my last post I was commenting on the fact that as the internet and television are getting ever closer together, maybe restrictions should be lifted to bring them in line. This argument is crushed by one look at a comments page, when you see the sort of people who have free reign on the internet.
As the net is so anarchic, and people can say and publish whatever they like no matter how ill thought out, (the flat earthers from another post are a perfect example) it is more important than ever that there are properly regulated sources of information that we can trust. A place to go, where we know the views are unbiased, well thought out and intelligent.
This is another reason why we should hope that impartiality in our broadcast media is here to stay.
And for your viewing pleasure here is a good example of trolling from our friends at college humor.
Straight Down The Middle 
Commenting now just seems like i’m falling into a trollish trap!!
Havn’t there always been ugly old trolls commenting just to provoke reaction? Surely there must have been- Definitely in some of the newspapers.
I guess the other point to make here is that the internet is without doubt heavily regulated too. -So many of these comments are taken off websites. The BBC for instance regulate and approve/disapprove comments- just like we can on wordpress.
Yes I think you’re right actually, and maybe rather than the internet having a detrimental effect on broadcasting and the concept of impartiality losing it’s relevance in the digital age, it could be that good quality media can help to preserve the standards of online content. Or am I just dreaming?
It is a tricky one… despite moderation and censoring,I never look at comments on articles for anything useful. Mostly because of the 10 steps to Hitler rule. No matter what the article/video/etc within 10 posts one person will invariably call the other a Nazi.
Online comment sections are the modern equivalent of the back of public toilet doors.
Do not look here for impartiality.
I tend not to bother looking at comments on most sites, simply because of the inane rubbish that some people decide to post. You certainly need somewhere that provides news and views which are impartial – however, most sites that provide the news, as Clare Salisbury points out that these sites are heavily regulated and comments are censored. Of course anyone can say whatever they wish on the internet, and as a citizen – even more so as a journalist – you have to be able to pick the good from the bad and the downright ridiculous.
Like James and Callum, I never bother to look at comments either as most of the time they are made up of people’s opinions, which is fine, but are obviously not impartial. I think that they neither add anything to a news story nor effect its impartiality as surely people are aware that it is only opinions, even on regulated sites like the BBC, which Claire mentions.
They are only opinions, I agree. But what about looking at a post and (the sensible) comments as a kind of narrative? This is something that I discussed with Graham Smith when I interviewed him. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/grahamsmith/ That a thread of posts or comments almost creates a piece in itself, one which includes different and often conflicting points of view. It’s almost a kind of new impartiality…
I love a bit of comment surfing! I always think it’s so interesting to see what other people decide to write, particularly on topics that will always provoke a reaction (i.e. Global Warming….the ice caps ARE melting I tell you (Turney, 2008)!).
It always surprises me how willing people are to associate themselves with bizarre comments that don’t show them in the best light. They must feel pretty passionate about it to get into a heated discussion with a stranger…? However, there are people that do it deliberately just to provoke a reaction like Claire said.
I know I’d much rather have a debate around the dinner table than with my computer screen, but hey, who am I to judge?