Starting it off
These past two weeks have been amazing. The show has thus far proven to be successful, the topics we covered were received wel,l by many, and some listeners are happily adjusting to the change, from droll BBC News radio, to a more interesting take on what’s going on around the world.
Some of the topics that we have covered on air, have been commented on and checked out on our website, by our listeners. A few of the comments have been great, but on the other hand some have been less than welcoming. The vitriol has shown me that there are some, less than understanding people taking time out of their day to browse and spread their hate on the internet.
Some comments were downright hateful. For example, I received an e-mail letting me know that the listener already had enough estrogen in his life, and didn’t need anymore from 9-10 AM, 5 days a week. It was a bit misogynistic.
As an avid public radio listener for about 11 years now (I’m 21), having grown up around parents who listened to NPR constantly, and as someone who has had a hard news centric life for the past 11 years, some of the criticisms and comments spat in our direction have been difficult for me to swallow.
I have to say that, many people have also lauded our show for being much less boring than the BBC News. But, sadly, those delicious morsels of reassuring, confidence boosting acknowledgement, are sometimes overwhelmed by the others, not so friendly comments.
Why some listeners get angry about particular pieces, I’m not always certain. But, when one of my pieces enraged some listeners and elicited an online discussion, I was shocked.
The topic that I covered was pirating TV shows on the internet. I sat down with Madeleine in the studio and explained to her, how downloading torrents works. Enraged listeners called and commented, saying that I was terrible for discussing what I had over the radio. I argue that these techniques are easily learned, with a simple google search, so my partial explanation was fine. I left out the part about having to download a bittorrent program to allow you to properly download and share torrented files.
The act of torrenting itself is not illegal, but torrenting copyrighted material, without permission, is. I explained this in the piece, but people still commented negatively.
On the same day, the LA Times posted an article about streaming shows for free online. I’m not sure what sorts of letters they received about their piece, but I’m sure, in a city full of entertainment people, they weren’t too nice either.
