The Engaging News Project, a non-profit organization that works to improve online news, has put together this PowerPoint to help editors and journalists better understand comment sections. We share tips and research for improving comment sections, including why journalists should get involved in the comments.

1. Presentation by the Engaging News Project
MANAGING COMMENT SECTIONS

2. ENGAGING NEWS PROJECT
To provide research-based techniques for
engaging online audiences in commercially
viable and democratically beneficial ways.

3. COMMENT SECTIONS:THE GOOD
Examples culled from GateHouse Media organizations

4. COMMENT SECTIONS:THE BAD

5. COMMENT SECTIONS:THE UGLY

6. COMMENT SECTIONS:
WHYYOU SHOULD CARE
1. Comments can affect what people think about your
journalism
2. Incivility in the comments can affect what people take
away from your journalism
3. Comments can build community
4. Comment sections can be a source of revenue

7. TODAY’STALK
1. State of the media on comment sections
2. Best practices
3. New ideas

8. COMMENT SECTIONS:
STATE OFTHE SPACE
Closed Comment
Sections
Expanded Comment
Sections
Closed, then Re-
Opened Comment
Sections

9. COMMENT SECTIONS:
STATE OFTHE SPACE

10. 32% of Internet users
reported that they had
posted a comment on an
online news site.
(Pew Research, 2010)

12. TODAY’STALK
1. State of the media on comment sections
2. Best practices
3. New ideas

13. MODERATION
Why moderate?
1. Demonstrates to commenters that someone is
monitoring the space
2. Creates a better online community
Why not moderate?
1. Time
2. Difficult to balance free speech and building a
strong community
3. Lack of clarity on what action to take

15. WHAT COMMENTSTOTARGET
WHEN MODERATING?
Important to have an internal conversation and guidelines.To get you
started …
From NPR’s Code Switch (excerpt)
1) "Why AreYou/WeTalking About
This?!?!“
2) "Group X Is ObjectivelyTerrible, And
I Have Proof" (or "It's Not Racist, It's
JustTheTruth")
3) "It's Censorship!" (Or "Your Removal
Of My Comment Is Evidence OfYour
Conservative/Liberal Agenda!")
From Huffington Post
1. Abusive, off-topic, use excessive foul language
2. Ad hominem attacks including comments that celebrate the death
or illness of any person, public figure or otherwise
3. Racist, sexist, homophobic and other slurs
4. Solicitations and/or advertising for personal blogs and websites
5. Thread spamming (you've posted this same comment elsewhere on
the site)
6. Posted with the explicit intention of provoking other commenters or
the staff at Huffington Post
7. Content that may infringe the copyright or intellectual property
rights of others or other applicable laws or regulations

16. WHATTO DO WITH PROBLEMATIC
CONTENT?
Delete the Comment
Delete the Entire Comment Section
Remove the User
Best Practices from GateHouse Newsroom Handbook
Example:
SelectivelyTurn on Comments

17. COMMENT SECTIONS:
EXAMPLES FOR CONSIDERATION

18. GETTING INVOLVED IN COMMENT
SECTIONS
Journalistic Involvement: TwoViews
Comments are the
purview of the site
users and newsroom
staff should not
respond …
Diakopoulos & Naaman, 2011,Towards
quality discourse in online news comments.
The tone changes
simply because the
user realizes
someone … is
listening
Jon DeNunzio, Washington Post

19. REPORTER INVOLVEMENT IN
COMMENTS
Design
Partner with local news station
Across 70 different political
posts, we randomized whether:
1)Reporter engaged
2)Station engaged
3)No engagement
Engagement was respectful,
highlighting strong comments
Results
Reporter engagement …
• Reduced incivility
• Increased provision
of evidence

20. REPORTER INVOLVEMENT IN
COMMENTS

21. REPORTER INVOLVEMENT IN
COMMENTS
Techniques to spark conversation and highlight productive
comments:
1. Answer legitimate questions (e.g. “Good question Mandy…”)
2. Ask questions (e.g. “What are your thoughts on that?”)
3. Provide additional information (e.g. “Here’s a link to the bill text.”)
4. Encourage and highlight good discussion (e.g. “Tom, you bring up something
interesting”)

22. TESTIMONIALS
“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
“(Engaging News Project) put out a study that
showed that having writers moderate and
comment on their own stories improved the tenor
of comments overall. A handful of reporters for the
Inquirer and Daily News have started to do this and
anecdotally, we feel it’s been pretty successful.”
-Erica Palan, audience engagement manager

23. TODAY’STALK
1. State of the media on comment sections
2. Best practices
3. New ideas

24. #1: HIGHLIGHTING COMMENTS
 Highlighting strong comments
 Example: FinancialTimes
Our homepage has a box featuring “best comments”
from our readers.We invite our journalists to make
suggestions for the homepage box. If a comment
posted on their story appears in the box, their article
usually has a surge in traffic.
-- Sarah Laitner, FinancialTimes Communities Editor

25. #2: SEEDINGTHE COMMENTS
Research found:
With 4 thoughtful comments
and 1 unthoughtful comment,
people left MORE thoughtful
comments.
With 1 thoughtful and 4
unthoughtful comments,
people left LESS thoughtful
comments.
Sukumaran,A.,Vezich, S., McHugh, M., & Nass, C. (2011). Normative influences on thoughtful online participation. In Proceedings of the 2011 AnnualConference on
Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI ’11 (pp. 3401–3410). NewYork, NewYork, USA:ACM Press. doi:10.1145/1978942.1979450
Could we use this insight to think about how to
get comment sections off on the right foot?

26. #3: DESIGNINGTHE SPACE
Sukumaran,A.,Vezich, S., McHugh, M., & Nass, C. (2011). Normative influences on thoughtful online participation. In Proceedings of the 2011 AnnualConference on
Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI ’11 (pp. 3401–3410). NewYork, NewYork, USA:ACM Press. doi:10.1145/1978942.1979450
Unthoughtful Design Thoughtful Design
(a)Visually casual and informal
(b) captcha with 1 neutral word (e.g.
magenta, curtain) and 3 low thoughtful
words (e.g. sloppy)
(c) Comment box label = Got something
to say??
(d) Comment box default text = Have
your say here!
(a) Formal and serious appearance
(b) Captcha with 1 neutral word and 3
thoughtful words (e.g. understanding)
(c) Comment box label = "Please enrich
the discussion by adding your
comments"
(d) Comment box default text = "Please
try to make your contributions as
constructive as possible"
Research found:
Thoughtful
Design = More
Thoughtful
Comments

27. EXAMPLES OF OTHER COMMENT
SECTION RESEARCH
Comment Structure
“Respect” button
Comment Moderation
Civic Discourse

28. EXAMPLE OF OTHER RESEARCH
engagingnewsproject.org/create-a-quiz

29. Questions & Comments?
/engagingnewsproject
engagingnewsproject.org
@engagingnews