I’ve always been against censorship. I think libraries should be able to have whatever books they want on the shelf. I think school textbooks should represent history appropriately regardless of material that could be critical or damaging. I think that a teacher should be able to teach a book that has important lessons and themes. Having said that, as responsible adults, we need to have some sort of idea about what’s appropriate in what forum.
Along with the curriculum, I feel it’s important to teach character development and social responsibility in my classroom. I do this by taking advantage of teachable moments to encourage compassion and understanding. Because I teach communication, we also discuss knowing your audience and formal versus informal setting.
The Fargo Forum gives online readers an opportunity to comment on each story. I admit, I’ve been drawn in to reading some of the comments and they are disgusting. Readers who comment do not even have to reveal their real names. This gives them an added sense of courage to write something they may not say. This article about a shooting in Wahpeton sparked many racist comments. An article about a Valley City pastor who got in some hot water with a prostitute produced comments that certainly aren’t appropriate for my family friendly blog. This simple article about an Ellendale hardware store owner who won back a grill bought at his store (a neat coinicidence) caused commenters to question “who did the drawing?” and mention the word “conspiracy.” It’s just a grill people!! (You can’t read these particular comments as it seems The Forum has deleted them.)
Matt Von Pinnon, editor of The Forum wrote this piece basically asking the public about the situation. He admitted that “many of those comments were racist, ignorant or intended only to hurt.” He then posed the question, “But is it important to know those thoughts exist in our community, even if those thoughts are shared anonymously?” I think we all know that these thoughts exist in our community, but do we really need to give them a venue to flourish?
The Forum comments section goes directly against what I teach in my class and I think our society should think twice before continuing to allow these posts to appear on a site that should be a reputable news source. What kind of example are we setting for our youth?
This just reminds me that as educators we need to be diligent in our fight to instill compassion and understanding in our students. I hope when one of my students read something in the paper, they are able to look at the issue from all sides and form their own conclusions. I hope I am helping to create critical thinkers for the future who won't take part in posting "comments" like the ones I've read on The Forum's website.
Freedom of speech has taken on an entirely different context on the net. I think our rights to free speech can still exist and flourish in the digital world. Giving these people the right to by anonymous might seem like a great idea... in reality, this often breeds insensitivity. I guess we can still choose what we want to read or see and how we choose to interpret the messages or opinions. You make a good point- many comments are inappropriate and they interfere with our right to use a service meant for public viewing. Meanwhile, we are exposing our loved ones and students to hostility, racism, and other behaviors society has deemed as inappropriate. I think all we can do for now is to teach our students to be objective and not "believe" or feed into the same behavior. I totally get your concerns...we should be able to read the daily news online without being exposed these ignorance’s. Maybe there will be a button we can push to turn it off... or a built in a stupid filter-someday. lol
ReplyDeleteNewspapers today are very different than in the past. For one, many more people are reading them online. Today's upcoming generation is not subscribing to the newspaper and feels that if they want to know something they would rather watch the news or read it online. People are so involved in their own life’s and how things revolve around them that they can TIVO the news and watch it when they want to look up the paper online and receive the latest updates of breaking news as well. As far as content that is appropriate to put in the paper has changed as well. We want to have our children reading the paper and finding out what is happening in the world, but when it is all about rapes, murders, and bombings many parents don't want to subject their children to it. Who can blame them? I get sick of watching the news and hearing only negative stories. Now it seems that the comment column also has changed and people feel they have the right to comment on every article and without having to put their names on it they are able to be a little more bold. My feeling is that we have a comment column for a reason and if you wish to comment then you should also have enough guts to put your name next to it. If not keep your mouth shut or with the internet, your fingers still.
ReplyDeleteI find it sad that there are people that sit at their computer all day long, waiting for some unsuspecting person to add a comment online so they can pounce on them. These types of forums have no place in a journalistic world. In a perfect world, people would cooperate in an open forum and good ideas would be shared back and forth until some type of understanding is met. The truth is, people are mean and cruel. If you want your paper to have some sort of journalistic integrity, then there is no room for any type forums.
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