Open AccessINTERDEPENDENCE AND INTERVENTION: NEWS ORGANIZATIONS’ CONTRADICTORY RELATIONSHIP WITH ONLINE COMMENTS
Author(s) -
Anna Rantasila,
Heli Väätäjä,
Joel Kiskola,
Thomas Olsson,
Aleksi H. Syrjämäki,
Mirja Ilves,
Poika Isokoski,
Veikko Surakka
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
selected papers of internet research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2162-3317
DOI - 10.5210/spir.v2021i0.12231
Subject(s) - moderation , interdependence , social media , public relations , psychology , constructive , intervention (counseling) , social psychology , psychological intervention , sociology , political science , process (computing) , computer science , social science , law , psychiatry , operating system
Online news comments are intended to cultivate an interdependentrelationship between news organizations and their audiences. However, uncivil onlinecomments have become a persistent problem that requires constant intervention throughmoderation. In this paper, to better understand these interventions, we analyze interviewsof eleven managers of online comments of large Finnish news organizations. By exploring theviews of journalistic managers of moderation, this study contributes new insights to thediscussion about online content moderation, as previous research has focused more on socialmedia platforms and moderators. Our results suggest that the managers have a complexrelationship with comments. They would like to see more engaging comments but were alsofrustrated with the continuous need to moderate the comments. The managers also expressedconcern that uncivil comments keep more constructive commenters from participating, thusharming the audience relationship. Organizations tend to outsource moderation to thirdparties or automated moderation, as moderation is often seen as time-consuming and outsideof the core work of journalists. However, the managers were not satisfied with outsourced orautomated moderation, mainly because of a lack in contextual knowledge, as also noted inprevious research. Reflecting previous literature, our results suggest that some aspects ofuncivil commenting may require alternative approaches to moderation altogether. For example,some managers suggested replacing comments with other means of interaction. To address theinherent contradictions in online news comment moderation, we advocate a view that focuseson cultivating and rewarding civil comments instead of deleting and punishing for uncivilcomments.