Scholarly papers about online comments

This is my list of scholarly articles that address issues with online comments. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but intended to help scholars interested in the topic.

Albrecht, S. (2006). Whose voice is heard in online deliberation?: A study of participation and representation in political debates on the internet. Information, Communication & Society, 9(1), 62-82.

Anderson, A. A., Brossard, D., Scheufele, D. A., Xenos, M. A., & Ladwig, P. (2013). The "Nasty Effect:" Online incivility and risk perceptions of emerging technologies. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 19(3), 373-387.

Anderson, A. A., Yeo, S. K., Brossard, D., Scheufele, D. A., & Xenos, M. A. (2016). Toxic Talk: How Online Incivility Can Undermine Perceptions of Media. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 30(1), 156-168.

Ben-David, A., & Soffer, O. (2019). User comments across platforms and journalistic genres. Information, Communication & Society, 22(12), 1810-1829.

Benson, T. W. (1996). Rhetoric, civility, and community: Political debate on computer bulletin boards. Communication Quarterly, 44(3), 359-378.

Bergström, A., & Wadbring, I. (2014). Beneficial yet crappy: Journalists and audiences on obstacles and opportunities in reader comments. European Journal of Communication, 30(2), 137-151.

Binns, A. (2012). Don't feed the trolls! Journalism Practice, 6(4), 547-562.

Bivings Group. (2008). The Use of the Internet by America's Newspapers. Retrieved from Washington, D.C.:

Bliuc, A.-M., Faulkner, N., Jakubowicz, A., & McGarty, C. (2018). Online networks of racial hate: A systematic review of 10 years of research on cyber-racism. Computers in Human Behavior, 87, 75-86.

Blom, R., Carpenter, S., Bowe, B. J., & Lange, R. (2014). Frequent contributors within U.S. newspaper comment forums: An examination of their civility and information value. American Behavioral Scientist, 58(10), 1314-1328.

Borah, P. (2013). Interactions of news frames and incivility in the political blogosphere: Examining perceptual outcomes. Political Communication, 30(3), 456-473.

Braun, J., & Gillespie, T. (2011). Hosting the public discourse, hosting the public: When online news and social media converge. Journalism Practice, 5(4), 383-398.

Brewer, P. R., Habegger, M., Harrington, R., Hoffman, L. H., Jones, P. E., & Lambe, J. L. (2015). Interactivity between candidates and citizens on a social networking site: Effects on perceptions and vote intentions. Journal of Experimental Political Science, 1-13.

Brundidge, J., Garrett, R. K., Rojas, H., & Zúñiga, H. G. d. (2014). Political participation and ideological news online: ‘‘Differential Gains’’ and ‘‘Differential Losses’’ in a presidential election cycle. Mass Communication and Society, 17(4), 464-486.

Buckels, E. E., Trapnell, P. D., & Paulhus, D. L. (2014). Trolls just want to have fun. Personality and Individual Differences, 67, 97-102.

Cappella, J. N., Price, V., & Nir, L. (2002). Argument repertoire as a reliable and valid measure of opinion quality: Electronic dialogue during campaign 2000. Political Communication, 19(1), 73-93.

Cenite, M., & Zhang, Y. (2010). Recommendations for hosting audience comments based on discourse ethics. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 25(4), 293-309.

Chandrasekharan, E., Pavalanathan, U., Srinivasan, A., Glynn, A., Eisenstein, J., & Gilbert, E. (2017). You can’t stay here: The efficacy of Reddit’s 2015 ban examined through hate speech. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 1(2), Article 31.

Chen, G. M., & Ng, Y. M. M. (2016). Third-person perception of online comments: Civil ones persuade you more than me. Computers in Human Behavior, 55, 736-742.

Chen, G. M., & Pain, P. (2016). Normalizing Online Comments. Journalism Practice, 1-17.

Coe, K., Kenski, K., & Rains, S. A. (2014). Online and uncivil? Patterns and determinants of incivility in newspaper website comments. Journal of Communication, 64(4), 658-679.

Dadas, C. (2008). Writing oneself, writing the Presidential campaign [Online journal]. First Monday, 13(2). Retrieved from http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2078/1937

Davies, T., & Gangadharan, S. P. (Eds.). (2009). Online Deliberation: Design, Research, and Practice. Stanford, Calif.: CSLI Publications.

Diakopoulos, N. (2015). Picking the NYT picks: Editorial criteria and automation in the curation of online news comments. International Symposium on Online Journalism, 5(1), 147-166.

Diakopoulos, N., & Naaman, M. (2011). Towards quality discourse in online news comments. CSCW '11: Proceedings of the ACM 2011 conference on computer supported cooperative work, 133-142.

Erba, J., & Graf, J. (2015). The Effects of Civility and Anonymity on Perceptions of Online Comments. Paper presented at the Annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication, San Francisco.

Erjavec, K., & Kovačič, M. P. (2012). "You Don’t Understand, This is a New War!" Analysis of hate speech in news web sites’ comments. Mass Communication and Society, 15(6), 899-920.

Freelon, D. G. (2010). Analyzing online political discussion using three models of democratic communication. New Media & Society, 12(7), 1172-1190.

Gervais, B. T. (2015). Incivility online: Affective and behavioral reactions to uncivil political posts in a web-based experiment. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 12(2), 167-185.

Gonzalez-Bailon, S., Kaltenbrunner, A., & Banchs, R. E. (2010). The structure of political discussion networks: a model for the analysis of online deliberation. Journal of Information Technology, 25(2), 230-243.

Graf, J., Erba, J., & Harn, R.-W. (2017). The Role of Civility and Anonymity on Perceptions of Online Comments. Mass Communication and Society, 20(4), 526-549.

Graham, T., & Wright, S. (2014). Discursive equality and everyday talk online: The impact of "Superparticipants". Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 19(3), 625-642.

Graham, T., & Wright, S. (2015). A tale of two stories from "Below the Line": Comment fields at the Guardian. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 20(3), 317-338.

Han, Soo-Hye, & Brazeal, L. M. (2015). Playing nice: Modeling civility in online political discussions. Communication Research Reports, 32(1), 20-28.

Hardaker, C. (2013). “Uh. . . . not to be nitpicky,,,,,but…the past tense of drag is dragged, not drug.” An overview of trolling strategies. Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict, 1(1), 58-86.

Hill, K. A., & Hughes, J. E. (1997). Computer-mediated political communication: The USENET and political communities. Political Communication, 14(1), 3-27.

Hille, S., & Bakker, P. (2014). Engaging the social news user: Comments on news sites and Facebook. Journalism Practice, 8(5), 563-572.

Hinnant, A., Subramanian, R., & Young, R. (2016). User comments on climate stories: impacts of anecdotal vs. scientific evidence. Climatic Change, 138(3-4), 411-424.

Hlavach, L., & Freivogel, W. H. (2011). Ethical implications of anonymous comments posted to online news stories. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 26(1), 21-37.

Houston, J. B., Hansen, G. J., & Nisbett, G. S. (2011). Influence of user comments on perceptions of media bias and third-person effect in online news. Electronic News, 5(2), 79-92.

Hsueh, M., Yogeeswaran, K., & Malinen, S. (2015). “Leave Your Comment Below”: Can biased online comments influence our own prejudicial attitudes and behaviors? Human Communication Research, 41(4), 557-576.

Hurrell, A. C. (2005). Civility in online discussion: The case of the foreign policy dialogue. Canadian Journal of Communication, 30(4), 633-648.

Hwang, H., Kim, Y., & Huh, C. U. (2014). Seeing is believing: Effects of uncivil online debate on political polarization and expectations of deliberation. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 58(4), 621-633.

Janack, J. A. (2006). Mediated citizenship and digital discipline: A rhetoric of control in a campaign blog. Social Semiotics, 16(2), 283-301.

Kareklas, I., Muehling, D. D., & Weber, T. J. (2015). Reexamining health messages in the digital age: A fresh look at source credibility effects. Journal of Advertising, 44(2), 88-104.

Keith, W. (2002). Democratic Revival and the Promise of Cyberspace: Lessons from the Forum Movement. Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 5(2), 311-326.

Konnikova, M. (2013). The psychology of online comments. The New Yorker.

Koteyko, N., Jaspal, R., & Nerlich, B. (2013). Climate change and 'climategate' in online reader comments: A mixed methods study. The Geographical Journal, 179(1), 74-86.

Ksiazek, T. B. (2015). Civil Interactivity: How News Organizations’ Commenting Policies Explain Civility and Hostility in User Comments. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 59(4), 556-573.

Ksiazek, T. B. (2016). Commenting on the news: Explaining the degree and quality of user comments on news websites. Journalism Studies, 1-24.

Landert, D., & Jucker, A. H. (2011). Private and public in mass media communication: From letters to the editor to online commentaries. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(5), 1422-1434.

Ledgerwood, A., & Chaiken, S. (2007). Priming us and them: Automatic assimilation and contrast in group attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93(6), 940-956.

Lee, E.-J. (2006). When and how does depersonalization increase conformity to group norms in computer-mediated communication? Communication Research, 33(6), 423-477.

Lee, E.-J. (2012). That’s not the way it is: How user-generated comments on the news affect perceived media bias. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 18(1), 32-45.

Liang, H. (2014). The Organizational Principles of Online Political Discussion: A Relational Event Stream Model for Analysis of Web Forum Deliberation. Human Communication Research, 40(4), 483-507.

Liu, J., & McLeod, D. M. (2019). Pathways to news commenting and the removal of the comment systems on news websites. Journalism. doi:1464884919849954

Loke, J. (2012). Public expressions of private sentiments: Unveiling the pulse of racial tolerance through online news readers' comments. The Howard Journal of Communication, 23(3), 235-252.

Manosevitch, E., Steinfeld, N., & Lev-On, A. (2014). Promoting online deliberation quality: cognitive cues matter. Information, Communication & Society, 17(10), 1177-1195.

Martin, F. (2015). Getting my two cents worth in: Access, interaction, participation and social inclusion in online news commenting. International Symposium on Online Journalism, 5(1), 80-102.

McCluskey, M., & Hmielowski, J. (2012). Opinion expression during social conflict: Comparing online reader comments and letters to the editor. Journalism, 13(3), 303-319.

Meyer, H. K., & Carey, M. C. (2014). In moderation: Examining how journalists' attitudes toward online comments affect the creation of community. Journalism Practice, 8(2), 213-228.

Miller, B. M., Xu, Q., & Barnett, B. (2016). Commenter anonymity affects reader perceptions. Newspaper Research Journal, 37(2), 138-152.

Moore, M. J., Nakano, T., Enomoto, A., & Suda, T. (2012). Anonymity and roles associated with aggressive posts in an online forum. Computers in Human Behavior, 28(3), 861-867.

Ng, E. W. J., & Detenber, B. H. (2005). The impact of synchronicity and civility in online political discussions on perceptions and intentions to participate. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 10(3), 00. Retrieved from http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue3/ng.html

Nielsen, C. (2012). Newspaper Journalists Support Online Comments. Newspaper Research Journal, 33(1), 86-100.

Nielsen, C. (2014). Coproduction or cohabitation: Are anonymous online comments on newspaper websites shaping news content? New Media & Society, 16(3), 470-487.

Papacharissi, Z. (2004). Democracy online: civility, politeness, and the democratic potential of online political discussion groups. New Media & Society, 6(2), 259-283.

Parra, O. C., Ayerdi, K. M., & Fernández, S. P. (2020). Behind the comments section: The ethics of digital native news discussions. Media and Communication, 8(2), 86-97.

Paskin, D. (2010). Say what? Journal of International Communication, 16(2), 67-83.

Phillips, T., & Smith, P. (2004). Emotional and behavioural responses to everyday incivility: Challenging the fear/avoidance paradigm. Journal of Sociology, 40(4), 387-399.

Pierson, E. (2015). Outnumbered but well-spoken: Female commenters in the New York Times. CSCW '15 Proceedings of the 18th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing, 1201-1213.

Price, V. (2009). Citizens Deliberating Online: Theory and Some Evidence. In T. Davies & S. P. Gangadharan (Eds.), Online Deliberation: Design, Research, and Practice (pp. 37-58). Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.

Price, V., Nir, L., & Cappella, J. N. (2006). Normative and informational influences in online political discussions. Communication Theory, 16(1), 47-74.

Reader, B. (2012). Free press vs. free speech? The rhetoric of ''Civility'' in regard to anonymous online comments. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 83(9), 495-513.

Reich, Z. (2011). User comments: The transformation of participatory space. In Participatory journalism: Guarding open gates at online newspapers (pp. 96-117).

Rosenberry, J. (2011). Users support online anonymity despite increasing negativity. Newspaper Research Journal, 32(2), 6-19.

Rösner, L., Winter, S., & Krämer, N. C. (2016). Dangerous minds? Effects of uncivil online comments on aggressive cognitions, emotions, and behavior. Computers in Human Behavior, 58, 461-470.

Rost, K., Stahel, L., & Frey, B. S. (2016). Digital social norm enforcement: Online firestorms in social media. PLoS ONE, 11(6), 1-26.

Rowe, I. (2015a). Civility 2.0: A comparative analysis of incivility in online political discussion. Information, Communication & Society, 18(2), 121-138.

Rowe, I. (2015b). Deliberation 2.0: Comparing the Deliberative Quality of Online News User Comments Across Platforms. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 59(4), 539-555.

Santana, A. D. (2011). Online readers' comments represent new opinion pipeline. Newspaper Research Journal, 32(3), 66-81.

Santana, A. D. (2014). Virtuous or vitriolic: The effect of anonymity on civility in online newspaper reader comment boards. Journalism Practice, 8(1), 18-33.

Santana, A. D. (2015). Incivility dominates online comments on immigration. Newspaper Research Journal, 36(1), 92-107.

Santana, A. D. (2016). Controlling the conversation: The availability of commenting forums in online newspapers. Journalism Studies, 17(2), 141-158.

Santana, A. D. (2019). Toward quality discourse: Measuring the effect of user identity in commenting forums. Newspaper Research Journal, 40(4), 467-486.

Schlosberg, D., Zavestoski, S., & Shulman, S. W. (2007). Democracy and E-Rulemaking: Web-Based Technologies, Participation, and the Potential for Deliberation. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 4(1), 37-55.

Schultz, T. (1999). Interactive options in online journalism: A content analysis of 100 U.S. newspapers. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 5(1), JCMC513.

Secko, D. M. (2009). The unfinished science story: Reflections on journalist-audience interactions in the online environment. Journal of Media Practice, 10(2&3), 259-266.

Shanahan, M.-C. (2010). Changing the meaning of peer-to-peer? Exploring online comment spaces as sites of negotiated expertise. Journal of Science Communication, 9(1), 1-13.

Shi, R., Messaris, P., & Cappella, J. N. (2014). Effects of online comments on smokers’ perception of antismoking public service announcements. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 19(4), 975-990.

Shklovski, I., Palen, L., & Sutton, J. (2008). Finding community through information and communication technology during disaster events. Proceedings of the 2008 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 127-136.

Sindorf, S. (2014). Deliberation or disinhibition? An analysis of discussion of local and national issues on the online comments forum of a community newspaper. The International Journal of Technology, Knowledge, and Society: Annual Review, 9(2), 157-171.

Singer, J. B. (2009). Separate spaces: Discourse about the 2007 Scottish elections on a national newspaper web site. International Journal of Press/Politics, 14(4), 477-496.

Singer, J. B., & Ashman, I. (2009). "Comment is Free, but Facts are Sacred": User-generated content and ethical constructs at the Guardian. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 24(1), 3-21.

Springer, N., Engelmann, I., & Pfaffinger, C. (2015). User comments: Motives and inhibitors to write and read. Information, Communication & Society, 18(7), 798-815.

Stromer-Galley, J. (2002). New voices in the public sphere: A comparative analysis of interpersonal and online political talk. Javnost - The Public, 9(2), 23-41.

Stroud, N. J., Duyn, E. V., & Peacock, C. (2016). News commenters and news comment readers. Retrieved from Austin, TX: http://engagingnewsproject.org/research/survey-of-commenters-and-comment-readers/

Sung, K. H., & Lee, M. J. (2015). Do online comments influence the public's attitudes toward an organization? Effects of online comments based on individuals’ prior attitudes. The Journal of Psychology, 149(4), 325-338.

Tenenboim, O., & Cohen, A. A. (2015). What prompts users to click and comment: A longitudinal study of online news. Journalism, 16(2), 198-217.

Thorson, K., Vraga, E., & Ekdale, B. (2010). Credibility in context: How uncivil online commentary affects news credibility. Mass Communication and Society, 13(3), 289-313.

Thurman, N. (2008). Forums for citizen journalists? Adoption of user generated content initiatives by online news media. New Media & Society, 10(1), 139-157.

Walsh, L. (2015). The double-edged sword of popularization: The role of science communication research in the Popsci.com comment shutoff. Science Communication, 37(5), 658-669.

Walther, J. B., DeAndrea, D., Kim, J., & Anthony, J. C. (2010). The influence of online comments on perceptions of antimarijuana public service announcements on YouTube. Human Communication Research, 36(4), 469-492.

Weber, P. (2014). Discussions in the comments section: Factors influencing participation and interactivity in online newspapers’ reader comments. New Media & Society, 16(6), 941-957.

Wiencierz, C., Pöppel, K. G., & Röttger, U. (2015). Where does my money go? How online comments on a donation campaign influence the perceived trustworthiness of a nonprofit organization. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 9(2), 102-117.

Wise, K., Hamman, B., & Thorson, K. (2006). Moderation, response rate, and message interactivity: Features of online communities and their effects on intent to participate. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(1), 24-41.

Witteman, H. O., Fagerlin, A., Exe, N., Trottier, M.-E., & Zikmund-Fisher, B. J. (2016). One-sided social media comments influenced opinions and intentions about home birth: An experimental study. Health Affairs, 35(4), 726-733.

Wojcieszak, M. E., & Mutz, D. C. (2009). Online groups and political discourse: Do online discussion spaces facilitate exposure to political disagreement? Journal of Communication, 59(1), 40-56.

Wolfgang, D., & Jenkins, J. (2015). Diverse discourse: Analyzing the potential of public affairs magazine online forums to reflect qualities of the public sphere. Journal of Public Deliberation, 11(1), Article 5.

Wright, S., & Street, J. (2007). Democracy, deliberation and design: the case of online discussion forums. New Media & Society, 9(5), 849-869.

Ye, X., & Li, X. (2006). Internet newspapers' public forum and user involvement. In X. Li (Ed.), Internet newspapers: The making of a mainstream medium (pp. 243-259). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Yun, G. W., & Park, S.-Y. (2011). Selective Posting: Willingness to post a message online. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 16(2), 201-227.

Zhao, D., Wang, F., Wei, J., & Liang, L. (2013). Public reaction to information release for crisis discourse by organization: Integration of online comments. International Journal of Information Management, 33(3), 485-495.

Ziegele, M., & Quiring, O. (2013). Conceptualizing online discussion value: A multidimensional framework for analyzing user comments on mass-media websites. In E. L. Cohen (Ed.), Communication Yearbook 37 (pp. 125-153). New York: Routledge.

Ziegele, M., Weber, M., Quiring, O., & Breiner, T. (2017). The dynamics of online news discussions: effects of news articles and reader comments on users’ involvement, willingness to participate, and the civility of their contributions. Information, Communication & Society.

Zimmerman, A. G., & Ybarra, G. J. (2016). Online aggression: The influences of anonymity and social modeling. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 5(2), 181-193.


Updated June 2020.