Journalistic counter-voices in comment sections: Patterns, determinants, and potential consequences of interactive moderation of uncivil user comments

• Main Authors: Marc Ziegele, Pablo Jost, Marike Bormann, Dominique Heinbach
• Format: Article
• Language: deu
• Published: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG 2018-12-01
• Series: Studies in Communication, Media
• Online Access: https://www.nomos-elibrary.de/10.5771/2192-4007-2018-4-525

Incivility in online user discussions is discussed as a significant challenge for democratic societies. Interactive journalistic moderation is seen as a promising strategy to deal with and prevent online incivility. Such moderation occurs, for example, when journalists publicly respond to uncivil comments and ask their authors to discuss more civilly. This study, based on a quantitative content analysis of 9,763 user and moderation comments on the Facebook sites of 15 German news outlets, investigated the patterns, determinants, and potential effects of interactive moderation. Results show that so-called public-level incivility (e.g., stereotypes, threats of violence) in users’ initial comments was associated with more interactive journalistic moderation, and that journalists used different styles when responding to these comments. Different moderation styles of initial comments were then related to the presence of incivility in users’ subsequent reply comments in opposite directions: A sociable moderation style decreased, and a regulative style increased the level of incivility in the reply comments.