Last Updated on September 3, 2017
Some news junkies may have noticed some subtle changes to some major news sites that suggest media companies may be trying to hide comments from readers. (Or, at the very least, make them harder to find.)
The apparent reason, says Poynter: “a flood of incivility.”
It takes neither a news junkie nor a rocket scientist to realize that more and more of us seem to be forgetting common courtesy and good manners just so we can have our say.
No matter how rude, profane or obscene that say happens to be.
Take a tour of virtually any news site’s comments section and you’ll see what I mean.
What’s even funnier to me is that if challenged, the commenters blame the behavior on the news source itself, accusing them of posting stories “just to get people to talk.”
Really? That’s why it’s called social media, people. You can even group blogs into the social media umbrella: and it’s quite true that most of us who blog do hope someone will drop by and comment once in a while.
Then there’s that very American need for “instant gratification.” We have the First Amendment, dadgummit, and we’re going to say the first thing that comes to mind no matter what anyone else things about it, how inappropriate it is, or how much better we’d look to those around us if we took a minute to think before that rush to the publish button.
Given these factors, maybe it’s no wonder sites like The Los Angeles Times, Politico, The New York Times, and USA Today have recently implemented changes that “de-emphasize” reader comments.
Poynter points to The Los Angeles Times’ recent site redesign which it removes comments from the bottoms of articles:
“Instead, comments for each article remain hidden unless users click on an icon along the right side of the screen.”
Despite guidelines and rules on most sites and social media platforms that ban obscenity and personal attacks, comment sections are replete with them. More and more, it’s less of a conversation about the actual story and more of a hatefest over personal opinions that come out during the shouting.
Do you ever read comments on news stories, or do you try to stay away from them?
I only read them after I’ve taken my blood pressure medication.
I read a political blog and the comments were polite and provided different perspectives on the post. It was run by a political columnist and many of the comments were written legislators from both parties. But now there is name calling and the use of foul language, the blog has gone down hill because of the quality of people who are now posting comments. Many of the long time readers who used to post comments stopped.
i went to comment moderating because of the disrespectful comments that were being left. But that hasn’t stopped the comments, many of them begin with “I know you will not post this…” They do it because they know that I have to read the comment before I delete it.