Blogs: Spittoons for the deranged or fostering constructive debate?

ICTs in general 1 Minute

In the aptly titled Some types are more fuckin’ than others? Java Jones, that inimitable voice in the Sri Lankan blogosphere, examines the timbre of expression on blogs and notes that:

Checking out one of the most popular (or would ‘most widely read’ be a more suitable term?) blogs on kottu yesterday I was struck once again by the vehemence of one respondent in particular who spared no pains to express his attitude towards the blogger in the most personal and vituperative way, even bringing the blogger’s family into the equation (okay, alright – it is Sittingnut and Indi that I’m on about – as if that would have required brains to figure out!). And this made me flash on the emotive responses that, in all probability, all us bloggers are susceptible to.

The post has inspired a tag renewal of sorts on often deliciously sarcastic Achcharu and gets Drac to ask of us, “… even when the discussion has steered clear of that sort of thing, has it really been intelligent and thought provoking? Or merely sycophantic and lengthy me-toos from either side of whichever divide is being posted about?”

Also read:
A conversation with Indi Samarajiva
The end of Moju – But conversations go on…
Blogging Code of Conduct: Does one size fit all?

Statement on Respectful Online Communication

Bullard on blogging: How not to be civil online
Beyond O’Reilly’s online civility dictum: Fostering healthy debate on the web and internet
Auteurs and amateurs: The debates on citizen journalism continue…

Published by Sanjana

An Ashoka, Rotary World Peace and TED Fellow, I have since 2002 used, studied and advocated Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) to strengthen peace, human rights & democratic governance. I founded in 2006 and till June 2020 edited the award-winning Groundviews, Sri Lanka's first civic media website. From 2002-2020 I was a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Policy Alternatives. I pioneered both the use of social media for activism and online citizen journalism/civic media in Sri Lanka, including setting up South Asia's first Twitter and Facebook accounts for civic media, in 2007. Having started digital security training for human rights activists in 2010, I continue to advise civil society on digital hygiene, mass and personal surveillance, privacy and secure communications to date. I also curate a comprehensive digital archive of material linked to peace and conflict in Sri Lanka, since 2002. I specialise in, advise and train on social media communications strategy, countering-violence extremism online, web-based activism, online advocacy and grounded, context-based, platform-specific social media research. My work experience over two-decades spans five continents. Through the ICT4Peace Foundation and since 2006, I help strengthen information management during crises and work on countering violent extremism online. For over a decade, this included leading the Foundation's work on these lines with the United Nations and other multi-lateral organisations involved in peacebuilding, peacekeeping, and humanitarian affairs. Since 2008, I have worked in South Asia, South East Asia, North Africa, Europe and the Balkans to capture, disseminate and archive inconvenient truths in austere, violent contexts. I completed doctoral studies at the University of Otago, New Zealand, looking at the symbiotic relationship between offline unrest and online instigation of hate and harm in Sri Lanka and, in the aftermath of the Christchurch massacre in 2019, facilitated by leading research based on New Zealand's first ever Data for Good grant by Twitter.

Published

2 thoughts on “Blogs: Spittoons for the deranged or fostering constructive debate?”

  1. Pingback: Feel the Deference - beyond mass media in Sri Lanka « burning bridge
  2. Pingback: Addressing hatred on the web « ICT for Peacebuilding (ICT4Peace)

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