TMZ
is a very popular celebrity gossip site that continuously updates it’s archives
with the latest stories. Albeit this site is busy, it is certainly not a site I
would personally spend my recreational time browsing… Which is exactly why I am
reviewing this site against O’Reilly’s draft code of Civility within blogs.
Firstly, this site appeals to a certain discourse; mediated entertainment. The
discourse community the blog creates is one where the public group that uses
the site is those that enjoy gossip of celebrities. Furthermore, in order to contribute
to the discussion about a specific article, the community must also obtain a
membership. This membership is easily attainable with just an email and
username. A site driven by curiosity, and snooping (to a certain degree) will
only be successful if they allow the community of readers to post their own
thoughts on the situation, no matter how toxic.
O’Reilly
has 6 rules to judge TMZ against, to conclude whether or not this site adheres
to the blogger code of conduct, and creates a friendly, hospitable community.
1. We take responsibility for our own words
and for the comments we allow on our blog.
Part of this rule
entails the constant maintenance of the community’s comments and content so
that they are not deemed unacceptable. TMZ clearly does not uphold this, all it
took was a quick browse over the comments section, in which users were toxic
towards the celebrity being discussed.
2. We won’t say anything online that we wouldn’t
say in person.
Hopefully
my faith in humanity won’t let me down, as I dare to say that I hope none of
the online users would repeat what
they posted in the comments.
3. We connect privately before we respond
publicly.
There
is no PM function. So, there is no way to connect privately.
4. When we believe someone is unfairly
attacking another, we take action.
There
is a chance of this rule being fulfilled as the comment section does have a ‘reply’
function, in which any good Samaritan
will use to defend their fellow peers from trolls.
5. We do not allow anonymous comments
In
a way, there is no anonymous commentators by O’Reilly’s definition of
anonymous; supply a valid
email used for contact. However, this email is only visible by the administrators
of the site, while the average user does
not have access to other peoples email. Only thing users have are the usernames/alias to take as face value.
6. We ignore the trolls
People
respond to nasty comments with even nastier comments of their own…
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