From: sp2@cec1.wustl.edu (Sundara Pandian)
Subject: On news postings in the net
Organization: Washington University, St. Louis Mo.
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 20:48:14 GMT

      On news postings in the net
    ------------------------------
  "Like father, like son.."
   What reminds me of this proverb ? 
   The current trend of articles in S.C.T.
   There is a `hot' discussion going on in
 the net in the true spirit of S.C.I. and
 the discussion new centers on the articles
 posted by Meenan Vishnu carrying excerpts
 from Toronto newspapers in Tamil.
    First, Meenan Vishnu posted `news summary',
 just the headline followed with a few lines
 summarising the news. This was immediately
 followed by another posting by Jayanth giving
 LTTE news. The latter posting is like what 
 one usually finds in Indian newspapers, while
 the former posting just gave summary of events.
 I saw quite a few articles discarding these
 articles as `rubbish' and asking/requesting
 Meenan Vishnu to stop posting TE news. 
    I saw one interesting reply pointing out
 what it means to avoid political news in the
 net. Avoiding political news in the net doesn't
 mean avoiding Sri-lankan news but avoiding 
 Tamilnadu news as well like Jayalalitha's ADMK
 celebration in Madurai, Rajini - future CM ?,
 CHO's Thuglak articles etc. 
    Are these `news articles' LTTE propaganda ?
 One ponders.. Meenan Vishnu came back this time
 with a news item on the proceedings of court in
 Tamilnadu on Rajiv Gandhi assassination. This
 posting was also followed by a few more articles
 calling S.C.T. a junk etc.
    What do we do if we don't like a news item in
 a newspaper that we read ? The news items that
 we read in a newspaper are not `facts'. They are
 subject to questioning and reasoning. They give 
 us alternate views and it is upto us to use our
 intellect to decide whether or not we can buy the
 theories put forth by the newspapers. We don't
 fast till the reporter of the article we disagree     
 in views is executed. We write in the `Letters to 
 the editor' column our views if we disagree in 
 views and such letters are considered by the
 associated reporter and other readers and they 
 write their views on the topic under discussion.
 This is a healthy way of discussing news articles.
    What is happening in S.C.T. ?
    Are we having a healthy discussion in the net
 on the news articles posted by others ?
    We are more keen on attacking the writers than
 reading the `news excerpts' posted in their articles.
 If we think that the `news excerpts' are wrong, then
 we can point out that the excerpts are in error by
 pointing out other news sources, BBC news etc. Or one
 may write an essay evaluating the excerpts posted and
 send it by e-mail to the writer for his comments.
 Or, one can ignore such articles totally and choose to
 read other articles posted ( This is the way I read
 S.C.I. articles/flames regularly. )
    I would ignore the news articles posted in the
 net if I disagree with their content instead of
 flaming the writer not to post such articles at all.
  
                                           S.Pandian.
                                    sp2@cec1.WUSTL.edu
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Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil