Sanctions Among Users of Comments Sections on News Websites and on Facebook

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Teresa K. Naab
• Subject Area: Communication Sciences
• Term: from 2017 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 358324049

Users of news websites and social network sites can comment on professional media content and interact with other users. However, the discussions do not always live up to the hopes of a deliberative discourse, which should represent diverse viewpoints, be rational, respectful, coherent, sincere, and comprehensible. Especially uncivil and impolite comments disrupt the discussions. The users can take action against inappropriate comments by writing reply comments and using social buttons. That way they negotiate shared norms in online interactions and complement the work of professional moderators. The project examines how users sanction other comment authors in the online discussions and which factors influence their means to sanction. It conducts a qualitative and a quantitative content analysis of user comments on news websites of mass media institutions and on their Facebook pages. It analyses the strategies and particularities of reply comments and the use of social buttons as a means of sanctioning other users. The project considers the influence of characteristics of the sanctioned comments, of the preceding threads, of the discourse architectures of the websites, and of the commented media contents. Therewith, it contributes to research on social norms, their negotiation and control in computer-mediated interactions, and it generates knowledge to support the regulation of user comments in the field.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants