MonroeTalks mirrors issues nationwide
Monday, October 13th, 2008Two unrelated moments today got me thinking again about MonroeTalks.com.
First, a student stopped me as I walked across campus to ask if I had seen the latest flare-up on MonroeTalks involving Sojourner, a regular poster who revels in controversy.
Then on my semi-regular visit to Poynter Online, a sort of journalism think tank, I ran across a blog post by media analyst Rick Edmonds about Topix.com.
Topix aggregates news - that is, it collects news stories from a variety of sources and packages them for each community in the country.
Check under Monroe and you’ll find a bizarre collection of news, most from Detroit or Toledo Web sites.
None of the news stories are original and there is no effort to be comprehensive. So you end up with an interesting but hardly useful mish-mash of news.
More of Topix’ Web traffic seems to come from the “Talk” section, where site users can comment on anything they choose.
As with MonroeTalks.com, the conversation is varied and sometimes not very civil. Because Topix is owned by respectable newspaper companies - Gannett, Tribune and McClatchy - Edmonds questioned whether the level of uncivility is appropriate.
He noted that newspapers have been struggling since the advent of user comments to find the balance between unfettered, open dialogue and maintaining tight enough control to satisfy their traditional high ethical standards
Most readers of this blog probably know that until eight weeks ago I led the team of folks at The Evening News who moderate MonroeTalks.
We spent many hours discussing this very topic. But invariably we decided to err on the side of letting people have their say with as little intervention by the newspaper as possible.
That philosophy was described by Topix creator Chris Tolles as a “culture shift,” according to Edmonds.
That’s exactly what it is.
I don’t pretend to understand why the Internet is the way it is. But users of Web sites like Topix and MonroeTalks are looking for a place to express themselves - without big brother looking over their shoulders.
It was fun checking out MonroeTalks again. I’m still amazed by the depth and diversity of the comments. And yes, some are still lacking in civility.
