The deliberative influence of comment section structure

Abstract

Online news comment sections are a ubiquitous presence across media outlets. Although research has assessed both the content and effects of these comment spaces, little is known about how the structure of comment spaces influences news users’ online commentary. As democratic theorists argue, the structure of a communicative space can influence its deliberative quality. We conducted two separate experiments to determine how news comment section structure affects online commentary. We found that both comment section structure and the structure of pre-comment information enhanced both the quantity of comment engagement and its deliberative quality.