Flamers. Lurkers. Trolls. They’re not the best houseguests. Often they leave a frightful mess – scorch marks on your swivel chair, egg on your face and hatred in your heart. It’s enough to put anyone off.

If you’ve ever written publicly – online, in print, on a social media site or discussion board – it’s likely you’ve had an unwelcome visit from one of these nasty triplets.

For those lucky enough to avoid the experience so far here is a quick guide: Flamers are those who strongly disagree with someone’s point of view online. They criticise opinions but fail to add anything constructive to the conversation.

If a flamer personally attacks someone, or purposely offends, they are called a troll. (When this happens I’m not sure if their hair turns orange and stands on end or if and the flamer-turned-troll shrinks to half their normal size. You see, no one actually sees a troll because they hide behind their keyboard or username).

Lurkers just hang around staring at stuff on message and discussion boards. They’re usually mute and fairly harmless. If quiet people annoy you then so will a lurker. “Why aren’t you saying anything? Contribute or go away!” Eavesdroppers and lurkers swim in the same genetic pool.

Fair comment

Now, don’t let the trolls put you off. Thanks to new technologies, comment is for everyone. We are all publishers. Whether it’s posting on a blog, uploading a photo or video from your mobile phone to Facebook or reporting events live on Twitter we are all eyewitnesses. This is sometimes called citizen journalism.

Journalists are not generally very happy about bloggers who think they’re journalists. Bloggers don’t tend to embrace journalists who become bloggers. It’s a complicated ethical argument that I won’t get in to here. But golly gee, can’t we all just get along?

We are all entitled to fair comment. It’s part of a healthy democracy. Journalists are supposed to act as a check and balance on the government, judiciary, business and society. Serious journalists write to inform readers about issues that may be relevant to them and highlight – through comment and opinion –  items those that may need more analysis.

Black holes

The weird thing about journalists (except local reporters) is that we are strangely removed from our audience. News and feature writers largely scribble, write or broadcast into a black hole. The process is: research, interview, confirm, fact-check, write, sub-edit, and send to multiple editors who check and then publish or broadcast the information.

Hacks rarely, if ever, hear from readers directly. Sure, you might see a letter to the editor with your name on it, answer a few emails and maybe even field a few calls from your usual stalkers, but generally your writing is met with silence.

We expect criticism or praise but we rarely get either. We’re used to being ignored and, when you report on news, that’s how it should be. The news is the news, not the person writing it.

Perhaps that explains why this new fangled social media – with all its this interactivity and collaboration – is kinda creepy. Traditional journalists are fairly solitary and competitive creatures so all this hugging and sharing makes us really uncomfortable.

Interaction

Bloggers are at the opposite end of this spectrum. In their world, it’s all about sharing information and getting an immediate reaction. Some bloggers are emotional documentarians – they write what they feel when they feel it. Most mommybloggers and daddydoers fall into this category:  “Exhausted. Weetabix cemented to forehead. Calling 999 for latest removal method.”

Others are industry experts who also act as editorialists in areas as diverse as Japanese haikus and microbiology to classic cars and weird weddings. “Sally and Sam spent their honeymoon bouncing on pogo-sticks from Costa Rica to Peru.” Bloggers, they invite and thrive on comment.

Get over it

Many journalists find this kind of thing dangerous. I don’t understand why. Bloggers do not claim to be the BBC, The New York Times or RTE Radio One. They are simply contributing their views and, as those who are trained to observe our society, we should really be listening. Blogging is a conversation; just people talking. When most people chat they do not have fact-sheets or statistics to hand. They speak off the cuff.

Of course, some bloggers do cross the line and claim that their opinions are facts when they are not.  But let’s be honest here: there are also some journalists who do the same thing.

My advice to journalists and bloggers?: Get over yourselves.  Social media, discussion and interaction are here to stay. It’s time to so embrace the technologies and figure out how  you can use them to best inform or service your audience – the reader.

Margaret E. Ward is a business columnist with The Irish Times, a blogger margaretward.ie and managing director of Clear Ink.

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