ASNE: Reader comments online: Have we lost control?
This column was originally written for ASNE’s magazine The American Editor and appeared on its web site on Sept. 14, 2007.
In the reader comments on an April 24 crime story on the Arizona Daily Star’s Web site, one reader posted exactly the sort of remark that makes Executive Editor Bobbie Jo Buel’s skin crawl.
“I wonder if he’s going to be yet another Muslim gone on a shooting spree,” wrote the reader.
Buel’s experience isn’t isolated, and it’s an issue editors increasingly must address as newspaper Web sites “get religion” about opening up to public comment.
But what’s the best way to keep out the riff-raff? The answer? There is no best way. All the techniques have an upside … and a downside. So, which downside are you most willing to live with?
Can software save us?
Online publishers have tried to control bad behavior by employing various forms of registration, everything from a simple sign-in form to heavy e-mail verified registration. Verified registration gives editors tools to ban bad guys but discourages newcomers from spontaneously diving into a topic. Simple sign-in gives editors no such tools, but they are also a low barrier to participation.
Bad guys find ways around fancy programming. If you use your system to ban one from your comments area, he’ll reappear hours later under a new e-mail address.
Give readers a tool to flag nasty remarks and they’ll use it as a weapon against others. Build a filter for naughty words and they’ll use creative spelling to sneak stuff past you.
Review them all?
Michael Freimann is the online editor at The Pantagraph in Bloomington, Ill., where readers can post a comment on every local story on the site but it won’t appear until the online staff has reviewed it.
“We’ve lost subscriptions over the comments,” Freimann said. “We’ve been bad-mouthed on the radio.”
The downside? Some online editors say pre-publication review dampens participation because readers don’t get the instant gratification of seeing their comment.
“The whole culture of the Web is for free debate,” said Jean Dubail, assistant managing editor/online at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland. “For us to red-light, green-light everything defeats the whole purpose.”
Perhaps that works in a big city, Freimann says, but not in a small town, where editors run into sources at the grocery store: “We’ve had coaches and administrators threaten to stop calling us … because commenters have ripped on student athletes.”
And then there’s the time
At an April online editors’ conference in St. Louis, one editor told colleagues he spends a quarter of his time reviewing comments pre-publication. Dubail says that’s impractical. He reviews comments post-publication as fast as possible.
The Plain Dealer’s comment software forwards an e-mail to an editor’s inbox every time a reader’s comment hits the site. Editors can review and delete them if necessary. And yes, that means foul words or hateful language can be visible until an editor sees it.
“So far, I have only taken down a total of five comments since I started moderating them” in mid-March, Dubail said. That’s five out of nearly 1,200 comments in about six weeks.
At the height of her frustration over readers’ comments, Buel said her newsroom worked out the staffing and decided they simply couldn’t offer pre-publication moderation on the StarNet comments: “It’s not practical.”
Know when to say when
Instead of cutting reader comments, or reviewing them ahead of time, Buel is getting comfortable with the idea of close monitoring and learning from experience. “We’ve kind of come to know the stories that are going to be trouble,” she said.
They’ve modified their software so editors can turn off story comments. Most crime stories are off-limits, for example. And so are stories that relate to immigration; a pity in a market where the issue is central to public policy.
Buel hasn’t thrown in the towel on readers’ comments. Readers often know more than her newsroom on a lot of stories. Reporters have gotten story ideas from the comments. “It’s a wonderful thing on a lot of the stories,” she said. “But the downside is huge.”
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Kurt's Tweets- Bravo. RT @pwthornton: "Banning unsigned online comments undermines the media’s role as a forum for debate.” http://bit.ly/bmZsOn
- I would like to just take the two steps forward and skip the one step back. How about that? Would that be OK?
- Still seeking talented journalists to run #Patch sites in two south St. Louis County communities. Know anyone? http://ow.ly/2Axnv
- Waiting for a listings collector to give her more #Patch marketing cards. The work never stops.
- Realizing how woefully out of touch I have been with this part of the county. (@ Saint Louis Bread Company) http://4sq.com/5z5Bfh
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