Analyze an Issue Essay: Impacts of Social Media

[bzilnicki]

Tommy - thanks for looking at my former essay on military spending. I had a few quick questions and also another essay if you don't mind reviewing:

1. Is it appropriate to basically restate the "central issue" in the opening paragraph and then just cite whether you agree or disagree. I find that, when strapped for time, it is easier to just lay out supporting reasons in each body paragraph. Not sure if you had a good template to follow here.

2. In the essay below, I wanted to go so many more places with supporting reasons (occupy wall st, tea party movement, use of social media in middle-east uprisings) but really just ran out of time. In mapping out the essay, I often get a little ahead of myself and cite too many reasons which I will not be develop when it comes time to actually writing. What is the best approach to the "note-taking" portion of analytical writing section.

3. Is my response too short?

Topic:
Claim: The emergence of the online blogosphere and social media has significantly weakened the quality of political discourse in the US.
Reason: When anyone can publish opinions easily, standards for covering news and political topics will inevitably decline.

Response:
The central issue in the above statement is whether blogs and other forms of social media will ultimately diminish the quality of political discourse in the United States, largely through the lack of journalistic standards to which amateur publishers are held. I would disagree with this claim.

While an increased number of political participants may lead to heightened risk of misinformation, this risk will ultimately drive readers to seek out unbiased news sources with recognizable branding. A discerning reader can identify a lack of intellectual authority or expertise within a particular subject fairly quickly and the increasing prevalence of political blogs and twitter feeds will only make an individual more sensitive to unsubstantiated opinions. Indeed, the need for professional news coverage only becomes more important during a time when anyone with an internet connection can be a content creator.

Those who seek to counter-act the emergence of social media are actually weakening an individual’s right to free speech, protected within the US constitution. In the by-gone days of paper journalism, the selection of op-ed pieces was limited to the chief editor of large newspaper, often influenced by his/her own personal biases. By making a public forum more accessible, we are only strengthening our rights as US citizens.

One could argue that mainstream media's increasing use of twitter feeds and face-book posts during a prime-time news hour does diminish the quality of on-air journalism somewhat and I would agree. Every word from a twitter account should not be heeded as factual. But this is not to say that this individual should be denied the right to lob an opinion into the public domain at all.

[tommywallach]

Hey Bzlnicki,

All of your points here are great, and the writing is solid. As you probably guessed, you are a little on the short side. I can't tell if that last paragraph is meant to be a conclusion or a third point. Perhaps you need to spend a little less time prepping/outlining? There's no "correct" way to do it; correct is whatever allows you to write the best essay! As I said, everything that's here is great, but I'd love a little more meat to each paragraph, and preferably five of them. Still, you're right on track, so feel good!

-t

P.S. Restating the issue a bit is a good way to get more content in there. I know it takes time, but that should go faster than writing original content!