The prevailing wisdom with most media outlets is to let posters say what they will in the online comments, within reason. Racist, sexist or violent posts are weeded out as are any libellous ones.
But if posters insult the journalist that has been considered fair game.
I have a thick skin, and readers are pretty smart; they are going to see through the falsehoods and recognize biased criticism for what it is, I have always thought. When I spot a comment attacking me or a story, I have always considered it free speech. “Have at ‘er,” I have always thought.
Of course, some comments make me furious, like a rash of accusations during the election that I was in cahoots with individual politicians or that the paper was paid off by Woodfibre LNG. As a professional journalist my ethics are what I am most proud of, but as we have seen with Trump, the best way to dismiss a reporter is to yell ‘Fake News.’
As ridiculous as these accusations are, they are rare, and people must see through them— right?
Traditionally, newspapers took pride in having various opinions expressed in the Letters to the Editor section (we still do), and that thinking seems to have transferred to online commenting.
But a new study by Kathleen Searles, Sophie Spencer and Adaobi of Louisiana State University, suggests that ignoring these falsehoods might be hurting my profession and media in general.
“We found a significant effect for the abusive comment on author credibility and intention to seek news from the author and outlet in the future,” reads the study. Don’t read the comments: the effects of abusive comments on perceptions of women authors’ credibility.
“Across three studies we found that abusive comments penalized journalists. These results suggest that adopting guidelines for flagging abusive comments.”
Two things that I hope come of this information: One: That readers of The Chief take pause and think about critical comments. If a poster is genuinely interested in forwarding their cause or correcting a perceived wrong, wouldn’t they call up the journalist, the paper or publisher to address this? Likely.
If said poster is just interested in trying to look smart and publicly humiliate from behind a keyboard, he is more likely to choose a nasty Facebook post.
Two: I hope all of us in media work harder to flag blatantly abusive and erroneous comments. Our reputation seems to depend on it.
