Claim: The emergence of the online “blogosphere” and social media has significantly weakened the quality of political discourse in the United States.
Reason: When anyone can publish political opinions easily, standards for covering news and political topics will inevitably decline.
Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim and the reason on which that claim is based.
The world is becoming an increasingly connected space, with new online channels for information dissemination that keep bringing us closer. This 'blogosphere' is a medium of expression for many individuals who wish to establish and argue in favour of their positions on various issues. The prompt claims that the blogosphere's emergence has weakened the quality of political discourse in the United States. It bases this on the premise that an ease of access implies a lower standard for news topics. In my opinion, I disagree with the claim and its reasoning, albeit to a certain extent. My opinion on this topic is based on three main points.
To begin, I can concede the fact that there has been an increase in the ubiquity of low-quality political discourse in the recent years. Relating this increase to the emergence of the blogosphere itself is hard to do, although some points could be made. Consider the 'Qanon Movement' within the United States during the 2020 US Presidential election cycle: Rumours and posts of political conspiracy spread rife through social media channels commonly used by people who are, on average, more right-wing. This began on the rather fringe platforms, like 4Chan, and then spread to Twitter and more mainstream media. One could dismiss this 'movement' to just be its own conspiracy, but it degraded the quality of political discourse, bringing back topics of debate from several years in the past, to the present. Political scientists have even correlated this to the rightward shift of the 'Overton Window', the representation of what topics are characterized as being politically left, right, or center, in the United States. Hence, it would appear from this perspective that the emergence of new online channels makes the nature of political discourse deteriorate.
However, there are other major things to consider. More insightful debate about the high prices of insulin and the effects of big pharma and the issue of student loan interest rates being unreasonably high have also been brought into the mainstream, as a result of the rise of the 'blogosphere'. One may point to the online conspiracy theories as being a disadvantage of online spaces, but it also forms a community that crosses physical boundaries - one where people from across the globe can hear other opinions, and geographical borders are more blurred. If people in America did not know of the lower prices of insulin in countries across the globe, would they still protest the high prices in their country? In a less online world, would they have examples to prove that student debt is a more uniquely American problem? Social media can also help more beneficial ideas get across, and can often give users a new perspective. A lower barrier to entry may even help better ideas to develop on the Internet. Hence, more insightful debate can be cited as a reason why the prompt is false.
One more thing: News channels do not necessarily inherit the good or bad aspects of social media. It is often more proofread, more factchecked, and new information goes through more levels of evaluation before it is released as a headline. They are often obligated to do this due to the demands of their stakeholders; if the news channel simply puts up headlines of less significant material, or politically 'incorrect' material, the stakeholders of the company would be more wary of their investment. Hence, no matter what the political discourse may be on social media, news channels and associated entities, like journalists, are more likely to keep their standards high for covering news stories.
In conclusion, I am of the opinion that there are no easy black-and-white answers, and that the claim is, on average, more false than true. Also, for the reasons detailed above, the prompt's reason is unreasonable, in my opinion. Social media and the 'blogosphere' is quite complex, and associating political discourse to the nature of easy access is not a direct mapping.
| Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-08-11 | YASSINETURKI | 50 | view |
| 2023-07-04 | Technoblade | 66 | view |
| 2022-12-18 | p_keerthika | 50 | view |
| 2022-07-24 | afroza2 | 83 | view |
| 2022-07-24 | afroza2 | 83 | view |
- The following appeared in a health newsletter A ten year nationwide study of the effectiveness of wearing a helmet while bicycling indicates that ten years ago approximately 35 percent of all bicyclists reported wearing helmets whereas today that number i 58
- Collectors prize the ancient life size clay statues of human figures made on Kali Island but have long wondered how Kalinese artists were able to depict bodies with such realistic precision Since archaeologists have recently discovered molds of human head 71
- The following appeared in a memo from the vice president of marketing at DuraSocks Inc A recent study of Dura Socks customers suggests that our company is wasting the money it spends on its patented Endure manufacturing process which ensures that our sock 78
- The following is taken from a memo from the advertising director of the Super Screen Movie Production Company According to a recent report from our marketing department during the past year fewer people attended Super Screen produced movies than in any ot 58
- The following appeared in a health magazine published in Corpora Medical experts say that only one quarter of Corpora s citizens meet the current standards for adequate physical fitness even though twenty years ago one half of all of Corpora s citizens me 80
Comments
Essay evaluations by e-grader
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 464, Rule ID: WHO_NOUN[1]
Message: A noun should not follow "who". Try changing to a verb or maybe to 'who is a are'.
Suggestion: who is a are
... media channels commonly used by people who are, on average, more right-wing. This bega...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, hence, however, if, may, so, still, then, as to, in conclusion, as a result, in my opinion
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 29.0 19.5258426966 149% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 12.4196629213 113% => OK
Conjunction : 20.0 14.8657303371 135% => OK
Relative clauses : 12.0 11.3162921348 106% => OK
Pronoun: 43.0 33.0505617978 130% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 90.0 58.6224719101 154% => OK
Nominalization: 12.0 12.9106741573 93% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3318.0 2235.4752809 148% => OK
No of words: 655.0 442.535393258 148% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.06564885496 5.05705443957 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.05894927669 4.55969084622 111% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.79191729839 2.79657885939 100% => OK
Unique words: 321.0 215.323595506 149% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.490076335878 0.4932671777 99% => OK
syllable_count: 1051.2 704.065955056 149% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59117977528 101% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 10.0 6.24550561798 160% => OK
Article: 6.0 4.99550561798 120% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 3.10617977528 129% => OK
Conjunction: 10.0 1.77640449438 563% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 12.0 4.38483146067 274% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 28.0 20.2370786517 138% => OK
Sentence length: 23.0 23.0359550562 100% => OK
Sentence length SD: 59.2626461145 60.3974514979 98% => OK
Chars per sentence: 118.5 118.986275619 100% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.3928571429 23.4991977007 100% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.60714285714 5.21951772744 69% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.97078651685 101% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 7.80617977528 13% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 14.0 10.2758426966 136% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 5.13820224719 136% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 7.0 4.83258426966 145% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.327168006226 0.243740707755 134% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0881843100198 0.0831039109588 106% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0864131353716 0.0758088955206 114% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.189413689098 0.150359130593 126% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0728293179268 0.0667264976115 109% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.1 14.1392134831 100% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 48.13 48.8420337079 99% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.92365168539 111% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.3 12.1743820225 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.42 12.1639044944 102% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.83 8.38706741573 105% => OK
difficult_words: 168.0 100.480337079 167% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.5 11.8971910112 71% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.2143820225 100% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.7820224719 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Write the essay in 30 minutes.
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
---------------------
Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 464, Rule ID: WHO_NOUN[1]
Message: A noun should not follow "who". Try changing to a verb or maybe to 'who is a are'.
Suggestion: who is a are
... media channels commonly used by people who are, on average, more right-wing. This bega...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, hence, however, if, may, so, still, then, as to, in conclusion, as a result, in my opinion
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 29.0 19.5258426966 149% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 12.4196629213 113% => OK
Conjunction : 20.0 14.8657303371 135% => OK
Relative clauses : 12.0 11.3162921348 106% => OK
Pronoun: 43.0 33.0505617978 130% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 90.0 58.6224719101 154% => OK
Nominalization: 12.0 12.9106741573 93% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3318.0 2235.4752809 148% => OK
No of words: 655.0 442.535393258 148% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.06564885496 5.05705443957 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.05894927669 4.55969084622 111% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.79191729839 2.79657885939 100% => OK
Unique words: 321.0 215.323595506 149% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.490076335878 0.4932671777 99% => OK
syllable_count: 1051.2 704.065955056 149% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59117977528 101% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 10.0 6.24550561798 160% => OK
Article: 6.0 4.99550561798 120% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 3.10617977528 129% => OK
Conjunction: 10.0 1.77640449438 563% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 12.0 4.38483146067 274% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 28.0 20.2370786517 138% => OK
Sentence length: 23.0 23.0359550562 100% => OK
Sentence length SD: 59.2626461145 60.3974514979 98% => OK
Chars per sentence: 118.5 118.986275619 100% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.3928571429 23.4991977007 100% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.60714285714 5.21951772744 69% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.97078651685 101% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 7.80617977528 13% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 14.0 10.2758426966 136% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 5.13820224719 136% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 7.0 4.83258426966 145% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.327168006226 0.243740707755 134% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0881843100198 0.0831039109588 106% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0864131353716 0.0758088955206 114% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.189413689098 0.150359130593 126% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0728293179268 0.0667264976115 109% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.1 14.1392134831 100% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 48.13 48.8420337079 99% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.92365168539 111% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.3 12.1743820225 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.42 12.1639044944 102% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.83 8.38706741573 105% => OK
difficult_words: 168.0 100.480337079 167% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.5 11.8971910112 71% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.2143820225 100% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.7820224719 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Write the essay in 30 minutes.
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
---------------------
Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.