The News Comment Gap and Algorithmic Agenda Setting in Online Forums
Flora B\"owing, Patrick Gildersleve

TL;DR
This study examines the differences between journalist and reader comment preferences on news websites, analyzes how ranking algorithms influence comment visibility, and introduces a new metric to evaluate these algorithms' effects.
Contribution
The paper provides an analysis of the 'News Comment Gap' using a large dataset and introduces FORUM, a new metric for assessing comment ranking algorithms' impact.
Findings
Journalists prefer positive, timely, complex, direct comments.
Readers favor comments similar to article content from elite authors.
Ranking algorithms significantly influence comment visibility based on sentiment and relevance.
Abstract
The disparity between news stories valued by journalists and those preferred by readers, known as the "News Gap", is well-documented. However, the difference in expectations regarding news related user-generated content is less studied. Comment sections, hosted by news websites, are popular venues for reader engagement, yet still subject to editorial decisions. It is thus important to understand journalist vs reader comment preferences and how these are served by various comment ranking algorithms that represent discussions differently. We analyse 1.2 million comments from Austrian newspaper Der Standard to understand the "News Comment Gap" and the effects of different ranking algorithms. We find that journalists prefer positive, timely, complex, direct responses, while readers favour comments similar to article content from elite authors. We introduce the versatile Feature-Oriented…
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Taxonomy
TopicsExpert finding and Q&A systems · Ethics and Social Impacts of AI · Knowledge Management and Sharing
