The circles represent themes. The larger the circle and the more centrally located, the more central was the theme. Themes that are closer to each other were more closely associated in the answers than other themes.

Semantic Network Analysis of Obama's Second Prime-time press conference. Click for larger image.

Here are the top concepts by mention:

issues 37
think 31
people 30
budget 27
leadership 26
economy 23
simply 18
years 17
health 14
care 14
percent 12
talking 12
growth 12
steps 12
costs 12
American 12

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Lots of people have already discussed the July 25, 2008 episode of “On the Media” which focused on comments and whether they are a good thing for the media. But I want to focus on one of the reasons I really admire Ira Glass, host of “This American Life” from Chicago Public Radio.

While many would take the easy road and say that comments from average citizens are cheapening the dialogue (as host Bob Garfield really attempts to do), Glass takes the high road, and here’s what he said:

I mean honestly, I hear you say that, and I just think that that is, that’s the way the royalty feels when they’re not the only ones who get a voice. Do you know what I mean? Like, up until now, you’re old enough, and I’m old enough, that you were very comfortable with the one way communication.

And I feel like I hear you say this and I feel like you are anti democratic. You are a royalist. You are upset with democracy itself. I don’t find it very comforting that there’s like a world of people who don’t agree with my feelings about my own show, but that’s okay with me. Like, I don’t have to feel good about that.

I feel like, you know, you make something, you put it out in the world and you want people to have feelings about it, and the feelings can include, they hate you and that seems okay. And the fact that they get to say it and it gets to stick to my name, I feel like even that seems okay.

When I first began writing, I heard from several columnists who were proud when they got letters to the editors about what they had written – even if the letters were negative. “At least I got a response,” they’d say.

The furor over comments (which seems to come up about every 6 months, it seems) shows that we’re all more thin-skinned than we like to think. But if we’re going to engage people and attempt to allow them into our mediated conversation, then we’re going to have to allow that there are a lot of people (more than we’d ever hope or think) who are nasty, mean, ugly people. And they get a say too.

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