The New York Times ran a short piece last week on its "super-commenters" - that group of commenters who post high quality comments and post frequently.
These are not just high-volume posters, but those people who are getting tagged by the Times or by readers as making quality comments. Bassey Etim, the community desk editor at the Times, is quoted as saying they number about 200 commenters. Times managers describe them as driven, competitive and professional. They also tend to be older and, not surprisingly, have schedules that give them the flexibility to comment. Commenting well and frequently takes time.
This is a starkly different picture from high volume trolls profiled in a book and covered by the Times in early November. (I chat about it here.)
As I have mentioned elsewhere, there is a bit of academic research on frequent commenters. While the trolls get the headlines, what we know suggests that "superparticipants" can play a more positive role in online forums. (The term was coined by scholars Todd Graham and Scott Wright.) The Times article reflects that.
Note: The article appears in Times Insider.
Graham, T., & Wright, S. (2014). Discursive equality and everyday talk online: The impact of "Superparticipants." Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 19(3), 625-642.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments on this blog are moderated. Items are posted as soon as possible. Thanks.