Promote audience participation, not free-for-all forums
Posted by Jean Yves Chainon on January 21, 2008 at 1:50 PM
In a posting on Mediashift last week, new media analyst Mark Glaser considers how The New York Times and BusinessWeek have embraced audience participation, but are still figuring out how to harness its power and moderate the discussion effectively.
The concern for many news sites at this point is not whether to let the audience participate, but how to do so without delving into all-open forums that quickly degenerate and require costly moderation.
“What has changed in the last year is that major media companies are no longer arguing over whether they should have comments under stories or blogs; instead, the debate is about how they should moderate them and even highlight the best ones in eye-catching editorial spaces,” says Glaser.
The New York Times recently included a comment function, and BusinessWeek now highlights a commenter along with a photo daily on its home page.
Newspapers don’t have to require users’ real names to enable them to comment. “That’s negative reinforcement and we need techniques to give positive reinforcement [as well]. Giving your real name and getting recognized for that is one way,” says Jonathan Landman, deputy managing editor for digital at the Times.
“Another example is having the editor’s selections or having people recommend the better comments. So a mixture of positive and negative reinforcement techniques is the way to go.”
The Times has established a special moderation desk that focuses on helping editors and bloggers moderate comments on their own blogs. All comments are currently pre-moderated. 11 staffers already work part-time to moderate comments, and Landman expects this number to grow.
At BusinessWeek, the publication is currently developing automatic filters to assist the human pre-moderation. This year’s second most important goal, according to executive editor John Byrne, is to develop the deepest and most meaningful engagement for readers.
About the site’s prominent inclusion of comments on the home page, as did USA Today, Byrne said:
“This is about elevating our conversation and giving credence to the idea that the web is a dialogue and not a lecture. The truth is that very few people are delivering on it, having reporters really engage with readers or elevating comments and saying, ‘This is as important as any story we have, any video we have, any audio we have.’”
Source: MediaShift
“What has changed in the last year is that major media companies are no longer arguing over whether they should have comments under stories or blogs; instead, the debate is about how they should moderate them and even highlight the best ones in eye-catching editorial spaces,” says Glaser.
The New York Times recently included a comment function, and BusinessWeek now highlights a commenter along with a photo daily on its home page.
Newspapers don’t have to require users’ real names to enable them to comment. “That’s negative reinforcement and we need techniques to give positive reinforcement [as well]. Giving your real name and getting recognized for that is one way,” says Jonathan Landman, deputy managing editor for digital at the Times.
“Another example is having the editor’s selections or having people recommend the better comments. So a mixture of positive and negative reinforcement techniques is the way to go.”
The Times has established a special moderation desk that focuses on helping editors and bloggers moderate comments on their own blogs. All comments are currently pre-moderated. 11 staffers already work part-time to moderate comments, and Landman expects this number to grow.
At BusinessWeek, the publication is currently developing automatic filters to assist the human pre-moderation. This year’s second most important goal, according to executive editor John Byrne, is to develop the deepest and most meaningful engagement for readers.
About the site’s prominent inclusion of comments on the home page, as did USA Today, Byrne said:
“This is about elevating our conversation and giving credence to the idea that the web is a dialogue and not a lecture. The truth is that very few people are delivering on it, having reporters really engage with readers or elevating comments and saying, ‘This is as important as any story we have, any video we have, any audio we have.’”
Source: MediaShift
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