SXSW PanelPicker submission for The Coral Project and the Engaging News Project.

1. CommentsAreTerrible
(ButThey Don’t HaveTo Be)
Panelists:Greg Barber,The Coral Project & Talia Stroud, Engaging News
Project
Moderator: Erica Palan, Philly.com

2. Trolls are
terrible people,
says science
 A commenter attacking a post can skew a reader’s perception of
the post – and the science behind it (Brossard & Scheufele, 2013)
 Readers might misattribute opinions expressed in comments as
coming from the article (Lee, 2012)
 Trolling behavior correlates with the DarkTetrad of human
personality: sadism, psychopathy, narcissism, and
Machiavelliannism (Buckels, 2014)

3. To ward off
trolls,
publishers are
killing
comments…
right?
 Sacramento Bee:
Dropped comments in 2013, restored them in 2015
 NationalCatholic Reporter:
Dropped comments in 2014, restored them in 2014
 LasVegas Review Journal:
Dropped comments in 2015, restored them in 2015
 Kyiv Post:
Dropped comments in 2015, restored them in 2015
Not Exactly.

4. What good are comments?
We see real value in our site playing host to intelligent, polite
conversation. We will continue to prioritize maintaining a safe and
welcoming atmosphere as we try to provide a way for our
community to engage in a mature dialogue around our content
-LasVegas Review Journal
in a post on Medium.com

5. So are you
here to tell us
every news site
needs
comments?
No.

6. We don’t need
comments.
We need to interact with users.

7. My organization has…
No money
Tight deadlines
Overbearing bosses
Giant bees
…how do we find time to interact?
Limited technology
Quiet bees
A horrible CMS

8. That’s where
we come in.
The Coral Project
 Collaboration: Mozilla,The NewYorkTimes,TheWashington Post,
funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
 Goal:To improve dialogue on news sites through open-source
software and improved best practices

9. And us.
Engaging News Project
• Based at the University ofTexas at Austin, funded by the
Democracy Fund, Hewlett Foundation and the RitaAllen
Foundation
• Goal: Provide research-based techniques for engaging audiences
in commercially viable and democratically beneficial ways

10. What can we
do now to
improve online
dialogue?
Interact
 Chances of an uncivil comment declined by 15% when a reporter
interacted in a comment section.
 Commenters providing evidence increased by 15% when a
reporter interacted.

11. “I’ve had a really positive experience getting involved in the
comments. It encourages me to look at the comments section
more.The readers respond well when I go in and comment.
They generally will thank me for my response.”
-Jessica Parks, county reporter
The Philadelphia Inquirer

12. What can we
do in the
future?
 Incentivize thoughtfulness
 Determine best contributions
 Highlight best contributions
 Invest in the social architecture (The Engaging News Project is
working on this)
 Model desired behavior
 Create software that’s free to use and integrate for publishers of
all sizes (The Coral Project is on it)