Flinging open the door of acceptance
I believe media companies are afraid of interacting with their audiences, because they (mistakenly) believe that their audiences are made up of people just like them -- resentful, mean spirited, backbiting, hostile egomaniacs with inferiority complexes who, if given the opportunity, will spout their opinions without regard or respect for anyone but themselves.
That's Terry Heaton, writing about last month some of the nasty comments left on a television executive's blog about changes at the station.
This is why I love the blogosphere so dearly, because the experience here is so different. Here, respect comes from a mutually-shared experience (blogging) and, I believe, a more realistic view of human nature. If you blog, you are respected until you give a reason to not be respected, and isn't that a great way to get to know people? We used to call that "the benefit of the doubt," but that's apparently been lost in a media culture that looks first to find reasons to doubt before opening the door of acceptance.
You know...I don't know. The world of television news must just be different. We have our share of disgruntled former employees, I suppose, but only one who regularly visits our blogs to share his dismay. This is not to be confused with the many readers who come to share their dismay with me, our paper or our decisions.
On the other hand, many of the comments on the TV blog seem to be left by people who don't like the lineup changes. We know that viewers become emotionally attached to the "on-air talent." When the faces change, they go shopping at other stations. (The departure of Hollie Strano did that for me. Sorry, Neill.) I wish we could replicate that emotional connection. We really only feel the emotion when we do something like reduce the stocks, change the comics or forget the bridge column.
I know that if all you do is read some of the comments on our blogs, it does seem like a mean-spirited, finger-pointing circus. But the bloggers themselves are almost all supportive and constructive. Interesting the differences between the two.
Meanwhile, the door of acceptance is open! C'mon in!
Comments (2)
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> Interesting the differences between the two.
My take -
Character is who you are when nobody is looking; when commenting anonymously we feel as though nobody's looking; ergo some...
(Whereas the bloggers have 'visible', albeit oft pseudonymous, identities.)
Posted on June 12, 2006 9:28 PM
I don't find that to be the case at all with blogging.
In my experience (especially in the Greensboro blogosphere) people are generally looking to pick a fight straight away and with the slightest provocation rather than holding that people should be "respected until you give a reason to not be respected." Some of this is because they don't have to pick the fight in person, and some of it is because they feel as though, because they too have a blog, they know what they're talking about just as surely as you do - and probably more. The tendency of a lot of bloggers to reduce other people to a political view based on a single comment or make a snap decision about someone they've never met - and then hold that grudge, look for evidence to back up that evaluation - really disturbs me. When we see people do this in person, face-to-face we recognize them as sociopaths. But even the best and most well-intentioned of bloggers can and do fall victim to this because of the medium itself.
Posted on June 12, 2006 10:43 PM