Let readers rule: More data on story comments
Several months ago, while hosting an ASNE webinar on story comments, I got wind of a survey the Seattle Times did of its online readers. A friend of mine, Kathy Best, is the top editor for seattletimes.com and I asked her for permission to see and blog about the results of the survey.
So we have more data to throw into the never-ending debate over allowing readers to comment on stories — and how it should be done.
Some of the results are on the graph above and explained below. But before I get there, I also want to point this out: The Seattle Times’ survey had a large enough sample to break down results demographically. Quite awhile ago, the Associated Press Managing Editors’ survey didn’t have a large enough sample to do that. I mused at the time about whether younger readers would have a bigger appetite for comments — and favor self-control (rather than editors’ control) over them.
Turns out, based on Seattle’s survey, that they do. Read more
Interesting stuff I saw online, Jun. 23 to Jul. 24
Here’s some of the stuff I thought was interesting while stomping through the Internet from Jun. 23 through Jul. 24:
- Show Us the Money: How Social Media Engagement is Paying Off – Blog – Standing Partnership – "Those brands that were the most engaged saw their revenue grow over the past year by 18% while the least engaged brands saw losses of negative 6%."
- News Websites in Texas and Kentucky Invoke Shield Laws for Online Commenters – "This week brings word of two new cases testing whether state shield laws apply to user comments posted on news websites."
- CNN’s iReport attracts nearly 4,000 submissions on Iranian elections | Journalism.co.uk Editors’ Blog – The role of amateurs has been significant in coverage of the Iranian elections.
- Four crowdsourcing lessons from the Guardian’s (spectacular) expenses-scandal experiment Nieman Journalism Lab – "Journalism has been crowdsourced before, but it’s the scale of the Guardian’s project — 170,000 documents reviewed in the first 80 hours, thanks to a visitor participation rate of 56 percent — that’s breathtaking."
Interesting stuff I saw online, May. 30 to May. 31
Here’s some of the stuff I thought was interesting while stomping through the Internet from May. 30 through May. 31:
- Four observations about charging for news that are often overlooked – “Plenty has been written about the futility of erecting pay walls — much of which I agree with — but a few points are often overlooked.”
- 100 Amazing Free WordPress Themes for 2009 – “High quality free WordPress Themes have become harder and harder to find in the past year, with the influx of premium themes, more and more designers and developers are selling themes (and rightly so, they do amazing work). But, that aside, the quality is certainly there, and we are sure you will be impressed with this WordPress theme compilation for 2009.”
- Getting the mean out of comments – A group of citizens meeting on the evening of May 20 in Knoxville over sandwiches and sweet tea might be end up influencing how news sites across the country view and manage comments.
- Cyberbullying: What the research is telling us… – “Delivered to the Year of the Child summit, this talk surveys the current research on cyberbullying and online harassment, pulling in Pew Internet data as well as the work of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, Internet Solutions for Kids and other academics and scholars researching this topic.”
Interesting stuff I saw online, Apr. 27 to May. 16
Here’s some of the stuff I thought was interesting while stomping through the Internet from Apr. 27 through May. 16:
- Random House shuts down Kindle text-to-speech for their titles – Awesome. Another industry tries to bully its way though changing technology rather than adapt.
- IOC: All Your Blog Are Belong to Us – Implications for news organizations that recruit local athletes to blog for them while at the Olympic Games? "The Sports Journalists' Association is reporting that the International Olympic Committee has issued guidelines for athlete bloggers at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games."
- Taking Online Discussions Back From the Bullies – Andrew Alexander, WaPo: "I believe that online, The Post should tolerate precisely the kind of moronic, anonymous, unsubstantiated and often venomous comments accompanying the Kellermann story. It's the essence of free speech."
- Blogger Wins $225,000 Settlement Over Public Records Delay – Citizen Media Law Project: "Sharkansky's story is a great example of how bloggers can contribute to the public dialogue. Sharkansky saw a hole in news coverage of an important event and took it upon himself to fill it."
- Dying is No Reason to Give Up Online Social Life | Firstcoastnews.com | Strange – "In today's world of always-connected social media, there's no reason to stop interacting online simply because you're dead."
Kurt's Tweets- Why is this not a national story? Maybe I missed it. Appalling. Disabled woman was tortured and held as a sex slave http://ow.ly/2CiAq
- 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.