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User comments are a controversial subject for news organizations transitioning to online. Enabling comment functions increases hits, but the matter of whether it increases the quality of journalism is debatable. Unidentified and anonymous commenters can't be held accountable for what they write, whereas journalists are held to that standard. Extremely inflammatory comments often go off topic and distract from the real news story. Paid journalists and citizen commenters often produce very different content, but some might argue that their information and/or voices are given equal visibility on a site with comment-enabled news stories.
Making sure comments don't turn into a "cesspool", as one critic says, can be a big challenge. We've all seen it happen. If speech in comments isn't protected by the 1st Amendment, cracking down on these key-happy commenters is not limiting freedom of speech, it's just maintaining the integrity of a news site. Sites that offer "pull down" viewing of the comments (in which you have to click to view comments) have found a way to partly address concerns related to comments, as have sites that monitor comments. Here is an excellent column about dealing with reader comments from Elizabeth Cook, the editor of the Salisbury Post. The Salisbury Post is an award-winning newspaper serving Salisbury and Rowan County in North Carolina. The paper also has a strong online presence and is moving into the digital age.
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I agree that comments can be a pain, but they can also be a great source of story ideas and contacts. It seems to me that some combination of automatic filtering and registration or user 'flagging' of comments can keep problem posts to a minimum while retaining the value of interacting with the community. It's tricky to find the right way to filter comments, though. On my own site, I approve all comments before they can be posted but I don't require registration. I'm not overrun by comments, so it doesn't take too much time. This blog requires me to log in under some known profile before commenting, which feels a little invasive and would undoubtedly limit comments, even some that might be useful. Tough to find the right balance, but either way, I would not want to see comments shut off altogether.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your response, Deborah. I agree that comments can be useful, and comment-enabled sites can be extremely valuable forums. I think another solution might be the "click to view comments" step, that just adds another page between the comments and the story. Maybe this helps to protect the integrity of the news content, while still allowing for a forum.
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