Is the comment section a good thing? ESPN, Barstool, Ect.

Patrick Florence

May 9, 2016

Intro to Advanced Communications

Dr. Melissa Zimdars

Comment Section?

         As we were talking about social media in class and how it is now a part of our lives, I began thinking about the comment sections on certain websites. Now-a-days more than ever, everyone has a voice. It doesn’t matter if it is a famous person or a random person, social media outlets and comment sections allow for every person around the world to have themselves be heard. When this first comes to mind, it seems like a pretty cool thing. Every one can now give their input versus before when they had no platform in which to speak on. That being said, it opens up some ugly doors as well.

      Comment sections can generate some great discussion, whether it be about sports, politics, movies or really anything. The internet has allowed for people with similar interests to have discussions about certain videos or blogs or whatever it may be. These talks can be interesting just to read or they can be useful to get involved with as well. Personally, I have been running a landscaping business for a few years and whenever I have a specific question about how to fix equipment, I can easily find a forum or something where knowledgeable people are discussing what the right steps are in fixing whatever it may be. All in all, allowing comments on things like this creates opportunity for people’s expertise to be shared more easily than ever before.

      Another type of commenting comes on current events and people in the public eye. More than ever there are events on TV or articles written about famous people and whatever it is they are doing or working on. People can comment about the gossip, sharing their opinions about the person. This is more for entertainment value, not so much for the usefulness as it was in the example in the last paragraph. To many people, the famous stars on TV or the analysts talking about sports aren’t real human beings. They seem so far from reality because they are on TV. They are real people however, many of which are simply doing their jobs. Because they are in the public eye, they are under a lot of scrutiny. That’s part of the job when you’re in a high profile position. It is almost impossible for a famous person to not hear the outside voices talking about them. I watched a video online that highlighted a female reporter for ESPN. She sat in a chair directly across from multiple men, each one sitting across from her one at a time. The men all were handed a list of quotes taken from the comment section of a video where this female reporter was doing her job, talking about the games or whatever sport she was covering that day. In order for the men to get paid in this video, they needed to read everything that was on the paper, no matter what it said. The facial expressions of the men said everything that needed to see how hurtful the comments were. “Do I really have to say this?” was a common question from the men. Face to face, the men looked up to this woman and read things that attacked her appearance, intelligence, and simply attacking her calling her every nasty name in the book. She sat there and listened. This was her reality. She knows these comments are out there about her, for simply doing her job. But who is saying these things? It wasn’t the men in the video. They were reading them aloud to her and it was quite clear that no one with any sort of decency would ever say these things to her face. The video was trying to get the point across that if you wouldn’t say something to someone’s face, don’t type it.

      The problem with the comment sections on things now-a-days is that people become tough while sitting behind their keyboard. There is no accountability. You do not need to put your name to anything that you type, for the most part, and that allows people to say nasty things about whatever or whomever they want. It opens the door to cowardly people to get their word out there with no repercussions.

      A popular blog, Barstool Sports, has a comment section that is very active and is a lot of the time one of the best parts of the website. Many people will comment hilarious things about videos or blogs that the writers put up. Most of the time, these comments are good hearted, funny, and appreciated but even on a site like this where the majority are males 18-32, people still take advantage of the fact that there comment will never come back to them. You are able to see how people who comment will often attack a writer, another commenter, and specifically the one girl who works for Barstool. It is different on this site because there is a group of people who always comment and they often will say things to people that take advance of the secrecy of who is commenting. In general, the comment section is anything goes and that’s what makes it funny but there is a line that shouldn’t be crossed, and it wouldn’t be if there were any accountability for the commenter.

    I am not sure if there is a solution to the problems caused by the comment section on websites. Clearly, there is a benefit to them and certainly an entertainment value as well. When used correctly, they can be the funniest part of a blog or website. All to frequently though, people with no dignity are able to feel bigger than they are and use it as a way to attack people with no repercussions. Although a fun part of many websites, it can really bring out the worst people who for the first time have a voice.

Sources Cited:

BarstoolSports.com

Merrill, Kenneth, et al. "The Male Gaze and Online Sports Punditry Reactions to the Ines Sainz Controversy on the Sports Blogosphere." Journal of Sport & Social Issues 39.1 (2015): 40-60.

Picture: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/erin-andrews-peephole-pictures-highlight-struggles-female-sports-journalists-article-1.399262