Online comments more civil

by Judi Whetstine

Gazette Community Advocate

At the new Gazette Online, the initial use of the reader comment function on news stories has been an eye opener.

During a meeting in May of international news ombudspersons and reader representatives, discussion focused on the continued struggle to get online readers engaged in lively, yet civil, online discussions about news stories. The general tone was not optimistic.

But, so far, so good for Gazette Online.

During the first days of the new site, launched July 27, comments were old style with some personal attacks or “knee jerk” reactions.

By Aug. 6, there were lighthearted jokes about arrests for electrically shocking fish on the Cedar River. There were concerns about the arson dog working the old Sinclair industrial site.

By Aug. 14, I saw 114 comments posted about a 63-year-old man charged with sexual abuse of a 4-year-old. There were 69 comments about the Iowa Medical Board's action against two Cedar Rapids doctors, most from personal experience.

Readers began to police each other for “name calling” or using bad humor. Comments became discussions and were educational.

The new commenting function is upgraded and that upgrade may have encouraged more readers to share comments on news stories.

Everyone still registers with a user name in order to comment. They provide a non-public e-mail address for the administrator.

You can give a thumbs up or down to someone else's comment, report violations about inappropriate comments to the administrator, learn what your reputation is among other readers, receive e-mail notifications when new comments on a news story are posted, and organize the comments by date, rating and last activity.

Jason Kristufek is the online editor and oversees the reader comment function. “The criteria we use when determining if a comment should be deleted basically falls into two areas: a personal attack on someone else or use of offensive language. We try to steer the conversation away from those two things as much as possible,” he said.

Jason also says they are still making adjustments to the comment function based upon reader feedback.

Try it, you will enjoy.

If you have an unresolved concern about the content or presentation of Gazette or KCRG-TV9 news stories, contact Judi Whetstine, our community advocate, at g.communityadvocate@mchsi.com, or by mail: Community Advocate, The Gazette, 500 Third Ave. SE, Cedar Rapids, IA 52401.

Whetstine is not an employee of Gazette Communications. The longtime attorney retired from the U.S. Attorney's Office in 2007. She also serves on the Cedar Rapids Board of Ethics and consults for Plains Justice, a non-profit public interest law center involved in environmental justice issues, and the University of Iowa.