Comment Sections

Comment sections are online spaces where people discuss a wide variety of topics, including the news. While often hosted on the websites of news publishers, comment sections are also increasingly popular on social media platforms, for example, underneath news story links shared through the social media pages and profiles of news outlets. Comment sections are widely understood as vital venues for the health of democratic societies, as they allow people to exchange their opinions on a wide range of topics. Comment sections have also recast the relationship between journalists as the producers of news content, and their audiences, and provide agency for news readers—to interact with journalists, to provide feedback, point out mistakes in a story, and to talk to others.

[Page 365]As comment sections invite ...