I am working up a post on reader comments to news stories on media sites, comments on media-hosted blogs, or media hosted online forums.
At the recent Online News Association conference there was definitely a sense of turmoil surrounding reader comments online. I'd hate to see interactivity switched off due to the lack of "here is how we make it work" knowledge sharing. Those in local media are in particular asked to send in some success stories.
Please comment here or privately to me - clift@publicus.net - about your success stories. Add links to examples when possible.
Some questions to ponder:
1. How are your online reader comments helping your media organization meet your mission?
2. Share a story about how a particular comment or set of online comments influenced follow-up reporting.
3. Share a story about how a particular comment or set of online comments influenced a local government decision or decision-maker.
4. Have readers acted as "citizens" on your forums to organize or coordinate action to meet some sort of local public challenge?
5. What generates the highest volume of comments as well as page views?
6. What technology has worked best for you? How is your technology generating better value?
Steven Clift
E-Democracy.Org
Creative Commons Attribution NC SA 3.0 License
3 comments so far, Add Yours
Steve James said:
October 31, 2007 8:12 AM
HarfordNow.com was started to allow the everyday citizens of Harford County, Maryland to have a place where they can share what was happening in their neighborhoods, in their own words. Within the first couple of weeks of the site being up, we had a new user blog about some dumping in her community. She provided pictures and background on the neighborhood's attempts at contacting the local government about the issues.
Through the post's comments, we learned who the owners of the property were and some background on why the condition was the way it was. A few weeks later, two of the local newspapers picked up the issue based on our initial blog post, and the county government promised to take action. Within a week, the developers had cleaned up the area.
The community had been trying to clean up the area for over a year, and thanks to a "citizen journalist" and the blog comments, action was finally taken.
Mike Orren said:
October 31, 2007 1:57 PM
For Pegasus News:
Some questions to ponder:
1. How are your online reader comments helping your media organization meet your mission?
2. Share a story about how a particular comment or set of online comments influenced follow-up reporting.
3. Share a story about how a particular comment or set of online comments influenced a local government decision or decision-maker.
4. Have readers acted as "citizens" on your forums to organize or coordinate action to meet some sort of local public challenge?
5. What generates the highest volume of comments as well as page views?
6. What technology has worked best for you? How is your technology generating better value?
Beth Lawton said:
November 5, 2007 9:46 AM
The Newspaper Association of America has two case studies out from this summer that might help. The first is about the Racine Journal Times in Wisconsin, which saw page views grow exponentially when it introduced comments on blogs and more. The other is about IndyMoms.com, one of Gannett's Mom-sites, which is pretty much built around a forum and already profitable.
Here are the links:
Building Community at the Racine Journal Times
IndyMoms Draws Busy Parents with Discussion, Niche Content
Subscribe to comments for this entry.