‘Getting What They Deserve’: Digital Media Readers Comment on the Cause of Detroit’s Bankruptcy

Abstract

Detroit has become the preeminent example of an American city that has struggled with the nation’s transition into a post-industrial society. Although some scholars have addressed the multifaceted structural forces leading to inner-city decline, the public discourse often promotes more simplistic explanations. The NVivo was used to perform content analysis on the reader comment sections from online news reports about Detroit’s bankruptcy. Three commonly held beliefs about the reason for the city’s problems were found: blacks, liberals, and unions. This paper also addresses some of the ethical concerns of collecting data from semi-public spaces in the virtual realm.