Speech Clouds

Speech clouds and thought bubbles, you see them at the base of an online news story. They often have a number indicating how many people have commented on the story. Some sites will even list the most commented stories into a popularity table. I'm not sure that turning journalism into a popularity contest is good for journalism. I'm not sure that a comments section provides a forum for healthy public debate but what the public wants, well in this case the public has got. Can you blame the news sites? I'd like to, I'd hope that the media was about truth and leadership and not about the simple greed of getting the most hits to satisfy the advertisers. Then again comments sections can be seen as truth too, albeit a predominantly ugly one.

I have often been dumbfounded by some of the comments people leave like when referring to a story about boat people someone suggested that our policy should be more like North Korea's where they definitely wouldn't help these illegal immigrants. Needless to say I was angry, I wanted to reply that I would never want Australia's values to be tarnished by taking on the values of a hardline dictatorship like North Korea, as if we would be better off for doing that you expletive expletive. I seethed and said nothing.

There are opinions out there that I agree with and opinions that are so far removed from my perspective on life that I wonder how those holding them can even sleep at night. So I find that these comments sections are very devisive and polarise issues, much like politics. Is it all that black and white? is there no grey area? And I'm not convinced that the sites which push public commentary compared to those that hold back from it a bit more give us an accurate picture of where we stand on particular issues due to the patronage of said sites. Is there a use though for this public forum other than spreading hate around?

Anger is not hate and sometimes it is appropriate to express anger. I can get angry looking at just about any comments section. The ammount of hate,bigotry, prejudice, xenophobia and sheer self interest can make me ashamed to be Australian, even to be human. The truth is that it is a representation of human nature and I myself am not above being human. When it comes to human nature I often despair where I want to hope. How can we be anything other than opinionated though?

An opinion comes from a person's belief and we all have beliefs and therefore we all have opinions. Have I have ever witnessed an attack on someone's opinion where that person then replied with anything along the lines of 'you know what, you might be onto something there, I think you may be right where I was wrong.' No. Attacking someone's opinion is as much attacking what they believe and what we believe is what we structure the rest of our lives around.

If we are sharing our opinion becaue we hope that it will make a difference then how do we do that? Would challenging an opinion or a belief generally require you to encourage the other to question their standpoint. In that if they are to change, they need to own it, you can't make them. I would also think that generally (generalising again) someone is only prepared to listen and question themselves when they have a relationship with that person or they see that person as an authority they trust. So when Joe screams abuse at John who condescends to Jill who puts down Jeff and none of them know eachother...what is achieved other than people getting angry and more instilled into whatever trench they have dug for themselves.

For starting a blog am I not a hypocrite? Well...yes I am in many ways and this blog is no exception. I have a high ideal of what I want this blog to be for - to be amongst all the angry opinions an opinion that often will stem from anger but that hopefully will be expressed in a more constructive way, if I don't succeed and at times I will not then I am a hypocrite. If I am not trying to engage the better part of me though then I may as well give up and just hurl feasces at anyone that doesn't agree with me. Is this my first blog littered with opinions that fall on deaf ears because I am inadequate at expressing a thought constructively, probably. Hopefully I have made an ok start in representing myself.

So wether it is news sites, other public forums, facebook or even in the offline world it would

seem best to either stear clear of strong opinions and comment sections to save yourself the stress or if you feel compelled to comment (which is why I have begun blogging and which I may regret) then I encourage you to be the person that asks questions, that develops relationships, that listens and that shares opinions wisely. Oh! and don't feed the trolls. comments welcome :P