“The Boundaries are Blurry…”: How Comment Moderators in Germany See and Respond to Hate Comments

Figures & data

Figure 1. Explanatory factors for comment moderation.

Table 1. Selection criteria.

Selection criteria	Specification	No. of interviews
Media type	Print	13
	Television	3
	Radio	1
	“Internet only”	3
Funding	Public service	4
	Commercial	16
Readership	Local	4
	National	16
Discourse architecture^a	Comment sections	14
	Discussion or Q&A forum	4
	Social networks	4

^a Since two websites offer both comment sections and a discussion forum, they are listed twice in this table.

Table 2. Sample description (n = 20 Interviews with n = 23 interviewees).

No.	Individual characteristics		Organizational characteristics
	Professional role	Gender	Media type	Readership	Discourse architecture
1	Editor-in-chief	Female	Print	Local	Comments
2	Online journalist	Male	Print	Local	Comments
3	Community manager	Male	Print	National	Forum
4	Community manager	Male	Internet	National	Forum
	Comment moderator	Male
5	Community manager	Male	Print	Local	Comments
6	Community manager	Female	Print	National	Comments
7	Editor-in-chief	Male	Internet	National	Comments, forum
8	Audience Development	Female	Radio (public)	National	Social network
9	Online journalist	Female	Print	National	Comments
10	Online journalist	Female	Print	National	Comments
11	Community manager	Male	Print	National	Comments
12	Community manager	Female	Print	Local	Comments
13	Community manager	Female	Print	National	Comments
14	Comment moderator	Female	Print	National	Comments, forum
15	Community manager	Male	Internet	National	Comments
16	(Deputy) Editor-in-chief	Female	TV (public)	National	Comments
17	Editor-in-chief	Female	Internet (Public)	National	Social network
	Online journalist	Female
18	Community manager	Female	Print	National	Comments
19	Community manager	Male	TV (public)	National	Social network
	Community manager	Female
20	Head of communication	Male	TV	National	Social network