I’m receiving feedback on Observations in an Undemocratic World and whilst it isn’t always positive, if you don’t reflect on the negative feedback and strive to improve then maybe you should disable the comments function. Naturally, everybody enjoys positive comments and this can be a motivation but on the flip side, you can’t let negative comments get you down. This blog is an opinion piece, it is my opinions and they might not necessarily be correct.

Unlike an academic paper, I don’t support opinions with direct referencing as it becomes a little heavy to read. On the upside, there is no need to publish a reference list, bibliography or even the people I have spoken to. I constantly read the comments sections of major newspapers online, in this information age we have the ability to immediately receive news stories. This also creates the conditions for misinformation to be posted and reposted – pretty soon it is self-perpetuating.

Although, I am no longer reading comments sections as they are dominated by trolls and keyboard warriors who are unaccountable to anyone. I did like to try to grasp the general community feeling until I worked out these forums are dominated by a very load minority who don’t reflect community feeling at all. Once upon a time, you had to go to the library to read outdated newspapers from around the world, now I have newsfeeds set up with live news headlines fed into my social media.

Likewise, I am not a journalist so I am not required to follow journalistic codes of conduct although I respect the better journalists. That being said, whilst my opinions are my own, I attempt to provide accurate analysis at all times. As such, I believe a journalist should report the facts and all too often a news service falls under either a left-wing or right-wing viewpoint. A balanced news service with fair reporting is my preference with specific columnists providing opinions.