Commenting on the News

Abstract

Journalists and digital news audiences value virtual conversations about the news, but only if they embody civil discussion. Drawing on a content analysis of 1379 stories and 333,605 user comments across 20 news websites, this study focuses on predictors of the volume of comments (as an indicator of user engagement and interactivity with the news) and the relative quality of those discussions, in terms of civility/hostility. The analysis explores variations in the degree and quality of user comments across story content (topic; including outside sources), story format (multimedia features), journalist participation in commenting platforms, and organizational commenting policies. The results shed light on how journalists and news organizations might encourage more and higher-quality user engagement with the news.