The comments section. A place in which users of the internet can create content that responds to the original poster’s created content. A place in which it would seem there are no laws or rules for how you should go about posting, the comments section has garnered a large amount of attention in recent years for being a place that encourages hateful speech. But what if the comments section served a bigger purpose than to display the hate of others? What if comments as well as the broader idea of any user generated content created to comment on another serves a wider purpose; a way for people to read multiple different opinions on a topic and therefore be able to affirm their own position more seriously.
Through my research I found that at least one person is already beginning to think this (Nakayama, 2016). Though the research is very limited for various reasons, I decided to try my hand at assessing what kinds of change can be encouraged in the minds of others by viewing user generated content.
After unsuccessfully attempting to find a post on my social media in which there were a number of racist comments under it (maybe I need to be friends with different people on Facebook) I took to youtube to see if I could find a video there that has been replied to. Through my internet deep dive, I was able to find a video posted by Fox News that would fulfill my requirement. It is just under 5 minutes with the title “Watters’ World: Chinatown edition.” Within the video, Jesse Watters somewhat unsuccessfully attempts to interview citizens of New York’s Chinatown on their opinions of Trump shortly after the election debates of 2016. I’ll let you watch the video so that you may form your own opinion of it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJmnLzw8NA4&t=3s.
I then found a response video created by The Daily Show entitled “‘The O’Reilly Factor’ Gets Racist in Chinatown: The Daily Show.” Within this video, Ronny Chieng “unpacks an “O’Reilly Factor” segment in which correspondent Jesse Watters mocks Chinese Americans in New York City’s Chinatown” (description of the video). You can find this video here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX8jZTN0CdU.
Through analyzing the two videos I suggest that both items paired together provide an anonymous viewer with two points of view from which they can begin to decide who was out of line on either side. And though the racism depicted within the first video might be hard to point out with the untrained eye, the second video does a great job of doing that for you.
A downfall of my, and others, methods of analysis would be that it is very hard to tell if people’s opinions have changed based solely on the comments under a video or post. This is because people are reluctant to admit they were wrong so publicly. Some further research that could be conducted would be holding focus groups in which participants are asked to view a variety of different user generated content that is on opposite sides from each other and talk through whether seeing both sides changed their minds about something. This kind of research would allow us to expand our knowledge of the internet and better anticipate changes within it.
I really enjoyed reading about this topic, especially because I have not read anything like it before. Were you able to find any information as to why there is little information around this topic? What were your motivations for researching this particular topic? It would be interesting to see what some people's motivations are for posting racist comments, along with the reactions of those who are impacted by them. Overall, I was really pleased to read this blog post and felt I learned a lot about your research.
ReplyDeleteVery nicely written. I would be interested to see if the individuals opinions would actually change based on comments to a posting. In addition, I think more research regarding this topic should be completed. Your idea of a focus group is a great start. I'm going to RT Emily when I say that I felt like I really learned a lot about your research through this blog post. Again, nicely written!
ReplyDeleteI believe this topic is not talked enough in our society, and it was very eye opening to read this blog post and watch the video you provided. I'm excited to hear you present on this, and I hope there is more research in the future, especially with the racial tensions on online communities.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting and new topic! I would be really curious to read find more information on it. I wonder how the comments on different platforms such as Facebook and Youtube would vary.
ReplyDeleteThe one thing that the internet does very well is create a space for people to agree and disagree and almost be force fed other perspectives which I think is a good thing! I can see how seeing others inappropriate and racist comments can be beneficial because it can expose others or confirm your perspectives and start discussion that may have gone on said.
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