How To Make Online News More Commercially Viable &

Democratically BeneficialTalia Stroud

Director of the Engaging News Project

Associate Professor at the UT-Austin

@EngagingNews / @TaliaStroud

ENGAGING NEWS PROJECT

To provide research-based techniques for engaging online

audiences in commercially viable and democratically beneficial ways.

Polls & QuizzesComment Sections Engagement ButtonsSite Design

POLLS ON NEWS SITES

Interactive polls are common on

news sites

AN ALTERNATIVE: A QUIZ

AN ALTERNATIVE: A QUIZ

Quizzes are engaging

AN ALTERNATIVE: A QUIZ

Quizzes are informative

ENGAGINGNEWSPROJECT.ORG/CREATE-A-QUIZ

ENGAGINGNEWSPROJECT.ORG/CREATE-A-QUIZ

QUIZ TIPS: POSSIBLE CANDIDATES

QUIZ TIPS

QUIZ TIPS

QUIZ TIPS

A QUIZ TOOL

Polls & QuizzesComment SectionsEngagement ButtonsSite Design

COMMENT SECTIONS: THE GOOD

Examples culled from GateHouse Media organizations

COMMENT SECTIONS: THE BAD

COMMENT SECTIONS: THE UGLY

COMMENT SECTIONS: THE STAKES FOR NEWSROOMS

1. Comments can affect what people think about your journalism

2. Incivility in the comments can affect what people take away from your journalism

3. Comments can build community4. Comment sections can be a source of revenue

COMMENT SECTIONS:STATE OF THE SPACE

GETTING INVOLVED IN COMMENT SECTIONS

Journalistic Involvement: Two ViewsComments are the purview of

the site users and newsroom staff

should not respond …

Diakopoulos & Naaman, 2011, Towards quality discourse in online

news comments.

The tone changes simply because the user realizes

someone … is listening

Jon DeNunzio, Washington Post

REPORTER INVOLVEMENT IN COMMENTS

DesignPartner with local news station

Across 70 different political posts, we randomized whether:1)Reporter engaged 2)Station engaged3)No engagement

Engagement was respectful, highlighting strong comments

ResultsReporter engagement …• Reduced

incivility• Increased

provision of evidence

REPORTER INVOLVEMENT IN COMMENTS

Techniques to spark conversation and highlight productive comments: 1. Answer legitimate questions (e.g. “Good question Mandy…”)2. Ask questions (e.g. “What are your thoughts on that?”)3. Provide additional information (e.g. “Here’s a link to the bill text.”)4. Encourage and highlight good discussion (e.g. “Tom, you bring up

something interesting”)

TESTIMONIALS“I’ve had a really positive experience getting involved in the comments. It encourages me to look at the comments section more. The readers respond well when I go in and comment. They generally will thank me for my response.”

-Jessica Parks, county reporter

The Philadelphia Inquirer“(Engaging News Project) put out a study that showed that having writers moderate and comment on their own stories improved the tenor of comments overall. A handful of reporters for the Inquirer and Daily News have started to do this and anecdotally, we feel it’s been pretty successful.”

-Erica Palan, audience engagement manager

Experiment to evaluate commenting behavior:(1)Background Information(2)Facts(3)Both Background & Facts(4)Control

Results(5)More comments with background

information(6)Comments more relevant with

background information(7)Facts made people less calm,

satisfied(8)The more perceived civility and

balance, the more interest people had in returning to the site

Polls & QuizzesComment SectionsEngagement ButtonsSite Design

ENGAGEMENT BUTTONS

Polls & QuizzesComment SectionsEngagement ButtonsSite Design

DESIGNING THE COMMENT SECTION

One-column vs. three columns

Limited page views, limited learningPAGE DESIGN

SUMMARY

Use quizzes instead of pollsHave journalists get involved in the comment section

Add pro/con arguments before a comment section

Use “Respect” instead of “Like”Consider new comment section designsUse contemporary homepage layouts

Questions & Comments?

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@engagingnews