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Abstract
Online news readers’ comments have been the subject of intense debates in newsrooms across the United States. Caught unexpectedly as hosts of this new public space, journalists are trapped in a conundrum between upholding traditional ideals of providing a space for dialogue for their public but yet at the same time not wanting to create a space for hate in online news readers’ comments sections. This research examines perspectives of 30 journalists in the United States through in-depth interviews regarding this new online public space. The survey results illuminate the experiences journalists are undergoing in their new roles, how they balance their responsibilities and the vision they hold of the future for this new space as they learn to navigate unguided through this new electronic landscape.
Notes
1. See articles discussing news organizations’ struggle with enforcing civility: Clark (Citation2007), Goldberg (Citation2010) and Heffernan (Citation2009).
2. If newspapers continue to lose circulation at the current rate of 7 percent every six months, there will be no more readers left in less than eight years (McChesney and Nichols, Citation2010).
3. During second quarter of 2009, newspaper revenues decreased 29 percent from 2008, marking the steepest quarterly drop since the Great Depression. This was the 12th consecutive quarterly decline in revenues since 2006 (see Sass, Citation2009).