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A Chance for Dialogical Journalism? Social Web Practices and Handling of User Comments at Deutsche Welle
[phd thesis]
Abstract The value of online user comments is a much-debated issue. In journalism, the newly arising possibility for readers and viewers to easily and instantaneously share their views on journalistic output was welcomed at first. Compared to the conventional letter to the editor it represented a democratize... view more
The value of online user comments is a much-debated issue. In journalism, the newly arising possibility for readers and viewers to easily and instantaneously share their views on journalistic output was welcomed at first. Compared to the conventional letter to the editor it represented a democratized form of audience feedback. News organizations increased their presence in the social web and gained more and more experience with user comments. Over time, however, discontent towards the quality of online user comments seemed to grow. But what is the responsibility of journalism in this respect? How do news organizations use the social web? How do they handle online user comments? To what extent do they tap the dialogical potential of the social web for facilitating exchange and understanding between different viewpoints? This study pursues these questions by investigating the case of Germany’s international public service broadcaster Deutsche Welle with its explicit dialogical mandate. It provides an in-depth examination of a transition period in which the news organization is grappling with its self-conception as a serious news provider in the casual social web environment, in which social media editors struggle for recognition from their established colleagues, and in which "stepping back and letting the discussion unfold on its own" serves as a strategy to avoid censorship accusations from users. Based on a specially developed analytical grid the study offers a democracy-theoretical evaluation of the user comments and their handling by Deutsche Welle.... view less
Keywords
digital media; journalism; Deutsche Welle; dialogue; social dialogue; democracy; discourse; Internet; social media; the public; theory of democracy; case study; facebook; content analysis; expert survey; qualitative interview
Classification
Communicator Research, Journalism
Interactive, electronic Media
Free Keywords
User Comments; Social Web; YouTube; Social Web Practices; Document analysis
Document language
English
Publication Year
2021
City
Berlin
Page/Pages
400 p.
Series
Digital Communication Research, 7
ISSN
2198-7610
ISBN
978-3-945681-07-0
Status
Primary Publication; peer reviewed