Here is a snippet from a presentation by former print journalist and now Morgan State University professor Allissa Richardson about online media. Richardson is explaining to a roomful of journalists how to live blog their news. When blogging, Richardson warns, you will encounter your audience in real time. No lag time for the letters to the editor; your critics will show up in the comments. So how do you deal?
One way to deal is to press the delete key. Especially if, as Richardson puts so eloquently, “you don’t want that type of drama on your blog.”
But this brings up a great issue: is digital media delete media? Is it necessarily a good thing to be able to erase the negative comments that we don’t wish to see? I know we all have spam filters on our blogs for people selling products, etc. But what about real people who post comments that are simply opinions contrary to our own?
Politico columnist Patrick Gavin brought this up during the PoliTwitch event back in May. (at 3:35 in the clip) Since he runs a political blog, he uniformly receives a bevy of partisan comments, so many that he almost doesn’t read the comments on the blog.
But what do you think about digital media, negative comments and the delete key? Should negative comments be kept as a part of the story? Or should digital media journalists and bloggers have carte blanche to “police” the comments?
And another point: Do you consider the comments a valuable part of the story?
Amanda, I think you should not delete negative comments about articles unless there is profanity or some other unethical comment. I think it adds to your credibility if you allow negative comments.
I get this question a lot. In fact, “how to handle Internet trolls” is the topic of my August Her Nashville column (http://hernashville.com/chic-geek).
People have the right to voice their opinions on blog posts, online news stories, etc.–even if they are wrong, snarky or ridiculous. So, as long as the comment isn’t a threat, patently offensive, spam, bigoted, libelous, or keeping you awake at night, leave it be. As I often remind folks, these are rants from comment trolls, not statements from the Pope.
Great post!
I’d place myself squarely in the anti-delete camp. Comments are what makes digital media unique–and social–and intense moderation (unless something is just grossly inappropriate) is both unnecessary and, in my humble opinion, somewhat unethical.
We live in a free and open democracy and like it or not, there’s always people who will disagree with something you write, especially on the Internet. But unless we are challenged to think differently and more critically about our ideas and opinions, how would we learn? The reason I spend so much time online is because I learn a LOT from my experiences on these social networks, from writing, blogging, tweeting, Facebook-ing–I would never silence a dissenting voice, because that would take away 99% of the learning experience for me.
From a PR perspective, NOT enabling comments or taking an intense moderation stance is the *absolute* worst thing you could do. Not only does it make you look closed, unresponsive, and corporate, but it keeps you from getting real, legitimate feedback DIRECTLY from your audience. Think about it this way: if you could make every viewer of an advertisement fill out a survey immediately after they watched your ad, wouldn’t you want that feedback? Of course. So why would you delete/disable comments on a blog? It’s the same thing.
So that was long and rambling, but just a few of my thoughts as I read your post. Curious to hear what other people think.
If you are just going to delete any comments that are in opposition to your viewpoint,then what is the point of you having a blog? You can’t tell a complete story without different points of view. Just because digital media gives us the option to whitewash our stories and only allow what we want to be seen, doesn’t mean we should do that. That completely defeats the purpose of sharing a message/story/point of view.
Comments are the stuff of life when it comes to blogs. I cherish them. You don’t have to agree with me; heck, sometimes that’s part of the fun. That being said, I definitely think that journos & bloggers should *be able* to delete comments as they see fit; I just don’t think that they *should* simply based on them being viewed as negative.