Writing On Flixster

Alright Writing for New Media Classmates, now that you have watched my visual tour of the Social Networking site known as Flixster, I thought it might be interesting to have a discussion with you about the official and member-generated writing featured on this avenue of the web. On Flixster, there is no official writing created for the purpose of being on the Networking site's web page, instead they have a Movie News section filled with articles that Flixster users have borrowed from other websites. With that being said I want all of you to note that the reason why I refer to these articles as borrowed instead of stolen is that Flixster requires its users to give a link to the original place where the article was originally posted before posting it on their site.

An example of a News Story featured on Flixster

However as I investigated deeper into the Movie News section, I discovered that all of the articles were posted by the same user SexiVixxEN which means that she can very well be an employee hired by Flixster to assess what articles are worthy to be posted on their site and if the web pages they are coming from are legit a.k.a official. At the same time, despite the possibility of Flixster having a employee that decides what sources are official I advise all of you to take the Movie News that can be found on these web sites with a grain of salt. Although, that doesn't mean that all the articles found on Flixster are not legit, in fact one of the articles are linked to the web page for the popular magazine, People but the rest of the articles are linked to Movie News sites that pull their information out of the ether or at least appear that way because none of their articles come contain sources. Based on this perception the rule of thumb that I can give you, members of my Writing for New Media Class when it comes to Movie News is to think of it as rumor rather than fact unless it is found in a printed source.

An example of an article from People.com linked to a Flixster News Story

As for the member-generated writing on Flixster it exists in two places. The first place is the comments section on your Profile page where the typical lightly anally edited "hey, hows it going" message that exists on every Facebook can be found filled with Emoticons, LOL abbreviations and exclamation marks. However what makes the comments section on Flixster different than Facebook is that some of the comments are movie recommendations made by the people you have friended using your account. Each recommendation includes the users rating of the movie based on a five star scale and their own short review of the film.

The comments section featured on a Flixster User's profile page.

This leads to the other form of member-generated writing that can be found on Flixster, user based movie reviews which are located on a person's Profile page or on the website for a movie listed in the Flixster database. As for the actual writing behind the reviews it varies between users giving a lightly edited one sentence review on a movie or giving a well-considered tightly anally edited review complete with the actor's name in parentheses following the name of his or her character to educate the public on the art of film. Although, no matter which way these reviews appear on Flixster, I have to ask the question can I trust the people on a Social Network for an opinion on a movie as much as a close friend or a respected Critic like Roger Ebert? In my opinion, the answer is yes because if the majority of the comments on a Flixster page about a movie are favorable then I would probably watch it to see what all the buzz is about.

An example of a well-considered tightly anally edited review on a movie and a lightly edited review.

However, I don't feel like I can make this statement without peer support which is where you come in Writing for New Media Class Members. Basically what I want you all to do is answer the question can you trust the people on a Social Network for an opinion on a movie as much as a close friend or a respected Critic like Roger Ebert? Then I want you to place your answers in the comments section for this post. I look forward to hearing from you and don't worry I don't bite.