Tag Archives: Internet

Comments Boon for and Bane of the Media

News stories are increasingly becoming the point of departure for discussion, rather than the final word on the subject, thanks to the “comments” feature on many news media sites. Comments are both a boon for and the bane of media…

Google News Commenting Feature: Value Without Vitriol

With all the vitriol that is present in the online arena today, it is refreshing to find a cyber conversation where the participants don’t resort to vicious personal attacks or indecipherable shorthand. Perhaps it is an elitist sentiment, but reading the comments on Google News is refreshing in a way that reading comments on The New York Times website or the Huffington Post absolutely is not. We know, it’s ironic that Google claims that the internet is all about openness yet only allows comments from “authority” sources or those who have been mentioned in a particular news article. The difference is that the comments do what they are intended to do in providing alternate or additional points of view that are relevant. Besides, if one really wanted the entire conversation uncensored, they could read the comments from the original article.