Deliberative Interactions in Commentary Sections. Multi-Level Analysis of Various Influencing Factors on the Extent and Quality of Discussions on the Internet.

从公共领域的理论视角来看，新闻网站上的用户评论是有趣的，并且与实证研究高度相关，原因如下：与读者给编辑的信相反，用户评论不仅是写给编辑的，而且也是写给共同的受众的。与博客和互联网上其他形式的政治表达不同，评论部分允许用户直接参与公共讨论，并立即关注大众媒体内容。因此，用户评论有可能在新闻网站上达到与新闻项目相同的受众。由于受话人和说话人角色的相互转换，评论部分的技术功能为审议互动创造了条件。不管有多少读者真正注意到用户评论，评论反过来会对公共传播的过程和结构产生影响。记者在一定程度上是评论的接收者，他们监测讨论和听众表达的偏好。该项目将首先对专业新闻网站评论部分的用户讨论的程度和质量提出问题。第二，为了解释的目的，它将考虑可能加强或削弱这些讨论的不同条件。这些条件在以前的研究中已经从理论的角度进行了讨论。然而，它们对审议互动的程度和质量的影响尚未得到系统的研究。从方法论的角度来看，到目前为止，审议的互动还没有检查关系，虽然这种方法是最适合描述潜在的网络关系在互联网上。基于这些原因，本研究将从相关性的角度考察评论部分中审议互动的程度和质量。在第二步中，增强或减弱审议互动的条件将在不同层面上考虑：媒体组织的影响（例如新闻和经济目标），新闻内容因素（例如问题，新闻因素），评论部分的设计因素（例如适度策略，回复按钮），以及扬声器特性（例如扬声器类型，政治立场）。将应用多层次分析来解释这些因素如何影响审议互动质量的范围和程度。此外，建议进行投入产出分析，以探讨选择出版用户评论的标准。投入产出分析将与社区管理人员调查相结合。这将有助于确定管理人员和媒体组织与评论部分的审议互动条件有关的动机和策略。

From the theoretical perspective of the public sphere, user comments on news websites are interesting and highly relevant for empirical research for several reasons: Contrary to readers letters to the editor, user comments are not only written to an editor, but also to a co-audience. Unlike weblogs and other forms of political expression on the internet, commentary sections allow users to participate in public discourse directly and immediately following mass media content. Thus, user comments have the potential to reach the same audience on news websites as journalistic items. The technical functions of commentary sections create conditions for deliberative interactions due to the reciprocal change of addressee and speaker roles. Regardless of how many readers actually notice user comments, comments can in turn have an effect on the process and structure of public communication. Journalists, who are in part the addressees of comments, monitor the discussions and the expressed audience preferences. The project will first pose questions about the extent and quality of user discussions in commentary sections of professional news websites. Second, for explanatory purposes, it will consider different conditions that might enhance or diminish these discussions. Such conditions have been discussed from a theoretical perspective in previous research. However, their influence on the extent and quality of deliberative interactions has yet to be systematically investigated. From a methodological perspective, to date deliberative interactions have not been examined relationally although this approach is most appropriate for describing potential network relations on the internet. For these reasons, the proposed research will examine the extent and quality of deliberative interactions in commentary sections relationally. In a second step, conditions that enhance or diminish deliberative interactions will be considered on different levels: influences of media organizations (e.g. journalistic and economic objectives), of journalistic content factors (e.g. issues, news factors), of design factors of commentary sections (e.g. moderation strategies, reply buttons), and of speaker characteristics (e.g. type of speaker, political position). A multi-level analysis will be applied to explain how the extent and degree of the quality of deliberative interactions are influenced by these factors. Additionally, an input-output analysis is proposed to explore the criteria based on which user comments are selected for publication. The input-output analysis will be combined with a survey of community managers. This will allow for the identification of motives and strategies of managers and media organizations pertaining to the conditions of deliberative interactions in commentary sections.