Wonderful world of talkbacks
Somewhere in the middle of the good and the bad of being able to say whatever we want exists the world of talkbacks on Israeli news websites
Freedom of speech is the first, and arguably the most important amendment to the United States constitution. It guarantees freedom of religion, the right to peaceably assemble, and the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
At its most powerful it allows people to question their leaders and demand that they are held accountable for the consequence their actions have on the world. At its weakest people use it to promote messages of hate and further spread intolerance across the country and around the globe. And somewhere in the middle of the good and the bad of being able to say whatever we want exists the world of talkbacks on Israeli news websites.
After I first visited Israel I added Ynetnews, JPost, and Haaretz to enhance my daily news feed of CNN and NYTimes. Much to my surprise all three of these major Israeli news sites allow people to talkback and respond pretty much however they want to an article. They are allowed (depending on who is monitoring the talkbacks) to judge the writer, say things that are completely unrelated to the article itself, give extreme perspectives on what is being said and write paragraph-long responses that wish to be blogs themselves.
Talkbackers monitor Israeli news sites closely, and it almost seems like a part-time job to be a regular talkbacker. People have full on conversations and respond to other talkback writers as if they were themselves the journalist. There are talkback bloggers who comment on nearly every article, sharing their opinion on everything from hard news to soft news and even giving an opinion on which articles are worthy of being written in the first place.
In a country filled with international strife, asking people to give comments on the news is like asking for a big wordy slap in the face. On any subject there is bound to be a huge group of people who wholeheartedly disagree or agree and can’t wait to tell you just how wrong (or right) you are.
On the other hand, this is not necessarily a bad thing. When talkbacks refrain from being condescending and malicious they can be a truly wonderful way of opening up a healthy debate on major international and local issues. Sometime I read talkbacks that really make me step back from my own agenda and consider where different people’s ideas might be coming from.
Keep 'em coming
It is amazing that today’s society is so global that people all over the world can read the same article on a website, debate each other about its content, and have the freedom to disagree with everything it contains. I’ve seen people talkback from within Israel to people as far away as the US, Canada, Amsterdam, Singapore, Australia, London, and more. Sometimes they agree, sometimes they don’t, but maybe the fact that the same people regularly care about the same issues unites us in ways we don’t even begin to think about.Look, I know that there are two sides to every story. For every opinion I have there is an equal and opposite one that is just as strong as mine, and that is the way it should be. We are blessed to live in countries where we have the freedom to express our opinions without governmental or media censure unlike some other places in the world.
So just remember talkbackers to keep it real, keep it constructive, and keep it coming. People are just people like you sitting behind their computer screens reading news articles and getting fired up over what was (or wasn’t) said. Talkbacks might be the only way that a lot of people are able to really comment on society, and in that sense the art of the talkback is exquisite.
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