Practicum 4 - Caitlin Lundquist
The John Edwards trial starts today and this seemed like a very polarizing issue. First I looked on the Fox News site and the first thing that comes up on the home page is “Sex Lies and Videotaper Prosecution: Edwards A ‘Master Manipulator’ in Covering Up Affair.” This is obviously a bit of a bias headline if you ask me, considering today only marks the start of the trial. I noticed that the article was written with some material from the Associated Press and some from Fox News' Jonathan Serrie which kind of shows that the article was given a different spin than maybe originally intended. At the time I decided to comment on the article, there were 498 comments. Most of the comments on the article talk about different readers negative opinions of Edwards and one of the comments that I found that sort of defended Edwards and the negative attention he has been receiving on this case was pretty heavily attacked by others. I wrote a comment/question in relation to this article to inspire some conversation hopefully, “Edwards has commented that he feels his case is similar to those of JFK and Clinton, do you agree with his comment or feel that there is a difference between these cases?”
The John Edwards trial starts today and this seemed like a very polarizing issue. First I looked on the Fox News site and the first thing that comes up on the home page is “Sex Lies and Videotaper Prosecution: Edwards A ‘Master Manipulator’ in Covering Up Affair.” This is obviously a bit of a bias headline if you ask me, considering today only marks the start of the trial. I noticed that the article was written with some material from the Associated Press and some from Fox News' Jonathan Serrie which kind of shows that the article was given a different spin than maybe originally intended. At the time I decided to comment on the article, there were 498 comments. Most of the comments on the article talk about different readers negative opinions of Edwards and one of the comments that I found that sort of defended Edwards and the negative attention he has been receiving on this case was pretty heavily attacked by others. I wrote a comment/question in relation to this article to inspire some conversation hopefully, “Edwards has commented that he feels his case is similar to those of JFK and Clinton, do you agree with his comment or feel that there is a difference between these cases?”
I wanted to respond to this post because I think this can be related to the current viral Mifflin video that was posted by UW Dean of Students Lori Berquam yesterday. The video posed the idea of "Don't Do It", as in go to Mifflin, and goes on explaining the disrespect that attending would pose. The video received a ton of scrutiny and ultimately was removed. That being said, in looking at the video yesterday, the comments did exactly what you experienced - people posed their own opinions and rarely commented on others. Although there was the occasional, "I agree" or "I couldn't have said it better myself," the majority of comments were just a sole person stating their opinion. I have posted the link below for you all to view, although it is not the original because it was removed due to negative feedback. Also, you may want to consider looking at the "remixes" online - they're all on youtube.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f13Oz3IvrHk
I watched both the video and the remix of the video that a student probably put together. I would agree that many comments on the video were negative, and that no one was really interested in starting conversations on the video. I think this can be attributed to the lack of accountability that is associated with internet communication. Many people have a chance to say things they would not normally say to others faces. Speaking directly to the video you posted, I did go to Mifflin for a bit and I thought I noticed a smaller turn out. I don't know if this can be attributed to the video by the dean but I was a bit surprised by the turnout.
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