In a post made yesterday, by jolly weatherman Al Roker, his rarely seen serious side came out as he expressed his opinions on the recent uproar concerning Don Imus and the comments he made regarding the Rutgers women’s basketball team. In the post, Roker says that Imus remarks, and similar instances where humor is used as a weapon at the expensive of others, is inexcusable and needs to have serious consequences rather than just a “slap on the wrist,” said Roker. Roker’s post has created an uproar all on its own, as comments about the post began flooding the blog, to the extent that an Editor’s note was made, stating, “we’re trying to post as many comments as possible, but it’s hard to keep up.” Roker’s post resulted in such strong reactions that he sat down with a Today Show online correspondent to talk about the comments posted on the entry, which can now be viewed on the Today Show website.
This blog is a great example of web 2.0 working as a conversation. Roker expressed his opinions, hundreds of viewers responded with their own feelings, and then Roker sat down for an interview about the viewer's response to his post, all in the same day. Like Roker, I found myself reading comment after comment after comment, which in my opinion, ended up being more interesting than the original post that evoked them. This illustration of blogs operating as a two-way conversation street, was an exciting and optimistic way to see the era of web 2.0, which is to often characterized as scary and bleak.
