For Blog Post #3 we looked at a section of a
Deadline article with reader comments. After the reading we had to answer these questions:
- How would you describe the fears and anxieties being expressed in these comments? What are these commenters afraid of, specifically?
- Fears and anxieties are based on personal experiences and are rarely expressed with anything even close to objectivity. Each individual has chosen the one piece they feel passionate about and expressed their opinion on how the fear / anxiety is seen and expressed through their eyes. Though there may be cross-overs between the participants as some people have similar life experiences, each voice is tinged with their spin and voiced in their particular mannerism.
- What kinds of beliefs and values are represented in these comments? How would you characterize the kinds of values and beliefs being expressed in the comments?
- Throughout the various posts you see values such as national pride, pride in heritage, a belief in justice and equality, a belief in what America stands for. I think that every American wants to believe in equality for all, land of the free, home of the brave, individual freedoms and a right to live life on their terms. Unfortunately, I don't it's possible for many Americans to be objective enough to stand behind their beliefs and still allow others to have their own set of values that may differ drastically.
- Which commenters came across as the most reasonable? What made them seem reasonable?
- After rereading all the comments I can't find a single one that was objective and without personal spin. The closest was posted by nerdrage and even that individual injected personal opinion with "It probably mean's he's a mental patient..." which is an opinion and not a fact. Perhaps my view of what is reasonable is skewed, but unless you are relating fact it's hard to ascend to these views as being anything other than individual perspectives.
- Which commenters came across as lacking credibility or trustworthiness? Why didn't they seem trustworthy?
- Gina Genochio did nothing but render personal opinion spiced with vehemence and I would therefore mistrust anything written by this individual. I would add to the list Anonymous who skirted the issues completely and talked about dog fighting. BongBong, Mike and Al'n each are relating personal spins with a touch of fact to endear their comments, but giving your life story can hardly be considered factual (prove it) and I doubt very much that Trump wears any suit made in Mexico or China (come on, Dolce & Gabbana, Perry Ellis, Michael Bastian, Armani, etc. are the only things he's caught wearing).
- Reflection on my classmates:
- I was able to view posts from Christina Loera and Brandon Goldenberg. I found both writers very informative and also discovered a didn't view of the original article posts that I hadn't delved into when I originally read them. Both blogs were unbiased and presented the information without undue personal opinion which allowed me to include their thoughts into my own. From their styles of writing I was also able to discover some fixes to my own style of writing which may make my words more enjoyable for readers. I was focused on being clear, concise, brief and to the point, probably to an extreme, and seeing their posts being larger and filled with writing that didn't seem like fluff makes me think I can include more and still not turn it into a novel.
- Here are the links to the posts of my fellow students:
I find your desire for fact to be interesting. I'm not sure if it is possible to find many traces of fact in a public comment section. With that being said, I do share your desire for some more concrete evidence for each commenter's claim. No one seemed to attempt to provide any evidence other than their personal experience. I'm glad that you helped me realize that.
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