The Detroit Free Press Should Eliminate Online Comments
If I was somebody who makes decisions for the Detroit Free Press, I would eliminate the reader’s ability to leave comments on the online version of the paper.
There are three reasons why:
1. There is no two-way dialogue. Blogs — which the online version of a daily paper strives to emulate — are built on two-way communication. Here, there is no conversation taking place between the reporter and the commentators.
2. Feedback is ignored. As far as I know, the writer doesn’t review the comments to get a sense of what his readers think about the content. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’d venture a guess that the comments provide no value to the paper.
3. Anonymity leads to verbal sparring. Nine times out of 10, the comment section becomes a virtual yelling match between people based in conflicting opinion camps. Add to that idea the fact that you can be totally anonymous, and it can get pretty ugly.
That last reason is the one I want to focus on, using a recent article about what Detroit could look like in the year 2020 as an example.
In a city that is rife with anger and apathy, an opinion piece stating that the city needs to change to survive was sure to ruffle some feathers.
But, by the fourth reader comment, all sense of decorum was thrown out the window when a reader named “JumboFishSticks” called the city a “turd,” blaming it all on the “great white flight.” A response to that comment called Detroit “the worst place in America to live.” From there, we were off and running.
As you can imagine, the constructive comments were far overshadowed by, well, the less-constructive comments, calling the plan to fix the city a “Utopian dream” and “a foolish daydream.” One commentator even took the Web editor to task for inserting a graphic of future Detroit that was too hard to read.
It it within these negative comments that we can see first-hand why the city is in such dire straits. Readers and citizens, alike, would rather spend their energy spouting negative retorts at other commentators on what amounts to an online message board than doing something positive with their time. But what’s the point of trying to change things when so many others (read: other online commentators) clearly don’t feel the same way? It’s enough to cause more people to become fed up with the direction of the city in a city that is already teaming with lost citizens.
I’m not saying that shutting down comments will magically save the city, but anything we can do, right now, to nip negativity in the bud is a step on the right path.
And the less we hear from people who just want to see the city burn, the better.
