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BROOM: Free and direct discourse

The Cavalier Daily should encourage more open-minded and honest dialogue from its readers

In my columns, I’ve focused almost entirely on the work produced by The Cavalier Daily staff. The opinion pieces and news stories have been my particular focus, with an occasional look at organization and other sections of the paper. There are other, more interactive, parts of The Cavalier Daily, though.

Dear Editor…

While letters to the editor have all but disappeared, it seems they have been replaced by what become guest opinion columns and online comments. The guest op-eds show up in the Opinion section alongside the regular columnists’ work, are often of a similar length and offer members of the community an outlet for their own voices. I think The Cavalier Daily editors do a good job of opening up both the print edition and the online space to those who have something to say.

This was especially evident during the recent Virginia election during which several people wrote pieces advocating for a particular candidate or, in at least one case, insisting that students should vote regardless of their choice. I do think it would be helpful to note when the piece has been submitted to The Cavalier Daily as a letter or email or whether Cavalier Daily editors sought out the author to write the opinion.

The comments

The online comments are something of an adventure. As is the case with online comments on virtually every website I’ve seen, many who comment appear not to have read the article or column in question or, if they did, brought their own beliefs to the piece and simply reacted to those beliefs rather than the information presented. I personally find it frustrating that so many commenters appear to strive to be snarky or seem to have a particular agenda almost entirely separate from anything having to do with the story they are commenting on.

There is important knowledge and perspective in some of the comments, and good interactions and conversations could really add to the overall body of information that is The Cavalier Daily. But these opportunities appear to fizzle out in the face of predetermined conclusions. The writers in The Cavalier Daily, especially the opinion writers, seem earnest and work hard to present their arguments. Personally, I’d love to see more sustained dialogue launch from the comments sections; many of the topics covered in The Cavalier Daily are important and worth some thought.

Sincerely, anonymous

I vacillate between thinking that, on the one hand, The Cavalier Daily should require online commenters to use their real names and, on the other hand, that anonymous commenting protects those who have criticism to offer that could compromise their job or position especially within the University. Real names would, hopefully, require commenters to be more thoughtful and careful in their writing and that, in turn, could lead to more robust dialogue. That said, I’ve also seen Facebook in the last year and so perhaps that too is a pipe dream. I’m also presuming that robust dialogue is the desired goal in online commentary. It may be that offering a platform for thoughtful exchanges while still allowing for sarcasm is actually the best combination.

I think allowing each commenter to choose whether to be anonymous is probably necessary to protect the ability of all to comment freely. What do you think about anonymous commenting? And does it matter to you whether op-ed columns are labeled as written by a regular columnist or a guest writer of some sort?

Christopher Broom is The Cavalier Daily’s public editor. He can be reached at publiceditor@cavalierdaily.com or on Twitter @CDPublicEditor.

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