My Thoughts on Comments

I recently wrote a blog post called My Controversy where I discussed how professional athletes (specifically Hope Solo) are under constant scrutiny from the public eye in regards to their personal lives. Controversy is always surrounded by a public opinion which is readily found in the comments section. For various reasons some comments seem to be credible while others do not.

Using The Guardian as my source for comments, two of them stood out as they did not seem credible at all.

Jankowski, Jessica. "Screenshot" 8/29/2015. 

This commenter seems to be expressing anger rather than taking an impersonal stance on the subject by attacking Solo, calling her a "disgrace". Since this comment is rather abrupt, the commenter's personal values are limited to his/her anger towards Solo. No reasoning was provided as to why Solo is a "disgrace", so the comment is revealed to be in spite of anger rather than reason. Additionally, proper capitalization was not utilized in the comment, further taking away from the commenter's credibility.

Jankowski, Jessica. "Screenshot" 8/29/2015

Although the use of creative wording in "there's no hope for Hope" is attention grabbing, this commenter seems to be expressing a fantasy about an athlete that doesn't seem to be relevant. By going off topic and mentioning dog fighting and dog "TORTURING/MURDERING" the commenter looses credibility. TheLongMarcher does seem to be against athletes participating in illegal activities as he believes there is no "hope for Hope", however by skewing off topic his/her credibility is lost. 

Some commenters showed credibility while discussing the topic on Hope.

Jankowski, Jessica. "Screenshot" 8/29/2015

This commenter expresses a credible fear about sports targeting "key players' to simply "side-line them" in the future. The reference to the US constitution that a person is to be presumed innocent until proven guilty adds credibility to the commenter's opinion. ProfHentryHiggins adds a valuable insight to not just Solo's position, but the impact that media has on athlete's lives and reputations. 

Jankowski, Jessica. "Screenshot" 8/29/2015

Now RobBarwick touches on the same concept that ProfHentryHiggins touched on; the fact of the article is that no charges were pressed against Hope Solo. This commenter expresses a wish for media to not portray an athlete as guilty of a crime if no criminal charges were charged. This commenter does not use inappropriate language to discuss his opinion on the article, so his credibility is not poor nor questioned.

Reflection:
After reading both of Carter and Jayni's blogs a lot of similarities emerged. In general, commenters who have personal experience relating to the topic of controversy are more credible than those who do not. Additionally, if a commenter personally attacks a person related to the controversy rather than commenting without personal opinion their credibility is lost.