Over 60%, for instance, want journalists to answer factual questions in the comment section. Survey respondents provide some guidance to newsrooms interested in innovating in the commenting space. Argumentative comments turn people away from these online spaces, but the public is divided on whether newsrooms should remove offensive comments or avoid policing commenters. Those commenting on the news and reading news comments differ on several key demographics but are similar in terms of the news comment sections to which they gravitate. Although a majority of the American adult population leaves comments, only a small percentage – 14% – comment on the news. The results of this survey provide an extensive portrait of online news commenting in the contemporary United States media landscape. Similarly, 58.7% would like it if experts on the topic of the article responded to comments in news comment sections. 60.9% of commenters or comment readers would like it if journalists clarified factual questions in news comment sections.66.6% of commenters and comment readers agree that allowing anonymity in comment sections allows participants to express ideas they might be afraid to express otherwise, while 47.9% agree that allowing commenters to remain anonymous raises the level of disrespect.33.9% of news commenters and 40.9% of news comment readers name argumentative comments as the reason that they avoid commenting or reading comments.56.0% of those who comment on news say they do so to express an opinion or emotion, particularly when the topic is United States politics or domestic policy.News commenters and comment readers most commonly name United States politics or domestic policy as the type of story on which they comment or read comments.Local newspapers’ and television stations’ sites, apps, and social media pages are popular news destinations for both leaving and reading comments.News commenters are more male, have lower levels of education, and have lower incomes compared to those who read news comments. Americans who leave news comments, who read news comments, and who do neither are demographically distinct.Of those who leave news comments, 53.2% said they comment on news monthly or less frequently, and of those who read comments, 59.0% said that they do so a few times a month or less.
Just over half (50.7%) of Americans do not read news comments or leave comments on news sites.Of those who have left a comment, 77.9% have done so via social media.55.0% of Americans have left an online comment and 77.9% have read the comments at some point.Additional details about the methodology can be found at the close of this report. The corresponding margins of error are +/- 4% for news commenters, +/- 4% for those who neither comment nor read news comments and +/- 5% for news readers. Throughout this report, we include data drawn from 600 news commenters, 506 people who have not commented on news or read news comments, and 365 people who read news comments but have not themselves left a comment. To identify the additional 460 news commenters, we surveyed 3,119 people about their commenting behavior. We then sampled an additional 460 news commenters. We first obtained data from 1,011 randomly sampled Americans, including 140 news commenters.
In total, we have complete data from 1,471 respondents.
Who comments online and why? Who reads online comments? And what does the public think about best practices for this space? In this report, we use a nationally representative sample of commenters and comment readers to describe the demographic makeup, attitudes, and behaviors of the people who comprise the online commenting world.ĭata were gathered from a representative probability sample of Americans by The GfK Group (formerly Knowledge Networks). To date, little is known about the populations that inhabit online comment sections.
Online comment sections provide a space for the public to interact with news, to express their opinions, and to learn about others’ views.
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