Authors: Flora Böwing, Patrick Gildersleve
Abstract: The disparity between news stories valued by journalists and those preferred
by readers, known as the “News Gap”, is well-documented. However, the
difference in expectations regarding news related user-generated content is
less studied. Comment sections, hosted by news websites, are popular venues for
reader engagement, yet still subject to editorial decisions. It is thus
important to understand journalist vs reader comment preferences and how these
are served by various comment ranking algorithms that represent discussions
differently. We analyse 1.2 million comments from Austrian newspaper Der
Standard to understand the “News Comment Gap” and the effects of different
ranking algorithms. We find that journalists prefer positive, timely, complex,
direct responses, while readers favour comments similar to article content from
elite authors. We introduce the versatile Feature-Oriented Ranking Utility
Metric (FORUM) to assess the impact of different ranking algorithms and find
dramatic differences in how they prioritise the display of comments by
sentiment, topical relevance, lexical diversity, and readability. Journalists
can exert substantial influence over the discourse through both curatorial and
algorithmic means. Understanding these choices’ implications is vital in
fostering engaging and civil discussions while aligning with journalistic
objectives, especially given the increasing legal scrutiny and societal
importance of online discourse.
Source: http://arxiv.org/abs/2408.07052v1
