Journalism as a Public Forum

This was an interesting presentation and one that I struggle with. I absolutely believe that we need to have public forum and places where people express their views and opinions. What I struggle with is the negativity that usually comes out when there is debate on a topic. People use these anonymous forums, like the KSL Comment boards, to say things that they would never say in person. The link to the KSL comment board is the response to the historic Healthcare vote and signing into law by President Obama. There are almost 1300 comments about the new legislation. The very first comment sets the negative tone for the rest of the forum. Instead of actually debating the issues, these forums are used to degrade and insult the people involved in the discussion. Rarely do the comments stay on topic but instead sway to horrible comments about the poster of a comment. I used to read the comment board often to get a vibe on what the public thought on certain issues and stories. I can't read them anymore because there is rarely any intelligent discussion, only insults and degradation.

Blogs, on the other hand, have been great for public forum. The presentation mentioned that we still need to check for facts and we often get lazy in doing that. With so much information out there, we can't just trust the words we read. I think that we need to be objective and make sure that what we are reading is credible. One example, although it isn't a news site is the blog seriouslysoblessed. There have been many comments about the blog concerned with what is written because some readers think that the site is real. Instead it is a satirical look at life in the Utah Valley married world. Just because it is written, doesn't mean that it is real.

We still need to have these outlets in order for our democracy to continue working. We can't be shut down or told what to think. As readers, we must be educated and objective to the things we are reading. Public forums should not replace traditional journalism, but it is out there and growing in popularity. We can use them to our benefit and to better our country.