Repetition and Predictability – repetition of the topics addressed and predictability in the reactions to the topics

 

John Draper, who owns and writes the Cobourg News does a magnificent job but really only preaches to the choir. The Choir being a noisy section of the Literati of Cobourg. Literati in the sense that they are really only the ones who are interested enough to write a comment. The commenters are usually the same ten to fifteen people who can quickly turn any topic into a rant for their own hobby-horses.

Analysing the posts one can be stereotypical and I list two or three types of people who comment:

• The people who live in the past who decry the world as it has evolved. If I had a dollar for every time someone writes “I want my Town back” I would be a rich man. Unfortunately no matter how many times you tell them the their world has collapsed and morphed into a very unpleasant one they still have hope for nostalgia.
• The Angry Anti-Government people. These people cannot find any good in the aims of Governments that are working on the common good. An offshoot of these people is the group of people who are suffering from “Trudeau Derangement Syndrome” all of the Government failures, in their minds, are the fault of Justin Trudeau.
• And there is now a group of people who hate the ‘encampment’ and the occupants. These people lay all of the ills of the Town, in their minds, – a moribund Downtown area, garbage strewn all over the place, rampant bicycle thefts and home invasions as well having to avoid unkempt unfortunates who sleep on the sidewalk on the Municipal Councils especially the County Council for their inaction in not bulldozing the encampment and by extension eliminating street crime and general malaise.

The other Cobourg Blog that is up is Pete Fisher’s “Today’s Northumberland” This publication purports to be a comprehensive roundup of local news but has a preponderance of Police Reports from Peterborough, Belleville and Durham as well as reports from the Cobourg Police and Port Hope. The only bright spot in this scenario is the written journalism. Fisher advertises himself as a photojournalist and only writes editorials, usually excoriating the local Police Chief, it is the the writing of Cecelia Naismith who provides well written copy about local politics and adds colour to a usually boring, unless you want to read Government Press Releases or Police Reports, website. If you want to read totally negative stories about the issues of the encampment read this blog he delights in finding the worst of the situation.

Another notable online page is “Consider This” a blog written by a total professional – Professor Robert Washburn. He came to Town in the 80s to work at the Cobourg Daily Star and stayed for many years before going into teaching at Loyalist College where he set up an award winning newspaper and newsroom. Many of his students are now Masters in their fields. He picks topics that the other two do not touch and slots them into the niche of ‘Hyperlocal Journalism”. This is a niche topic where one can drill down into aspects of local stories. He does it very well. Unfortunately he has been using the audio medium of podcasting as opposed to the written word. I prefer to read not listen.

Unfortunately two of these productions will not generate new ideas but are just just echo chambers for the commenters/supporters so I will read them, maybe comment – for my edification and to stimulate a response but still realise that in the greater scheme of things most of it is just ‘clickbait’. The other one is interesting and does make one think, but the topics are varied and usually out of the mainstream – which makes them even more interesting. One thing to Rob and Pete allow comments on your postings!