Reuters cracks down on reader comment

The new process gives special status to readers whose comments have passed muster in the past. It’s an important step towards a more civil and thoughtful conversation, Dean Wright, global editor, ethics, innovation and news standards, said on Monday.

Wright said he had become increasingly concerned about the quality of discourse in comments on news stories on reuters.com and on other major news sites. “On some stories, the ‘conversation’ has been little more than partisans slinging invective at each other under the cloak of anonymity.”

Richard Baum, global editor for consumer media, pictured, said that like many major news publishers, Reuters had agonised over how to balance enthusiasm for reader comments on stories with belief that few people would benefit from a free-for-all. 

“Most of our readers respect our request for comments that ‘advance the story,’ by submitting relevant anecdotes, links and data or by challenging our reporting when they think we’ve fallen short of our editorial standards. It’s rewarding, sometimes even exhilarating, to see the way our audience builds on our coverage.

“Where we struggle is with comments that we believe contribute nothing useful to the conversation. I’m not talking about obscenities and spam - we have software that aims to block the publication of those - but something more subjective.”

The type of comments that fall foul of Reuters’ moderators are

• racism and other hate language that is not caught by software filters
• obscene words with letters substituted to get around the software filters
• semi-literate spelling
• uncivil behaviour towards other commentators
• incitement to violence
• comments that have nothing to do with the story
• comments that have been pasted across multiple stories
• comments that are unusually long, unless they are very well written
• excessive use of capital letters.

“Until recently, our moderation process involved editors going through a basket of all incoming comments, publishing the ones that met our standards and blocking the others,” Baum said. “This was unsatisfactory because it delayed the publication of good comments, especially overnight and at weekends when our staffing is lighter.”

The new process grants “VIP status” to people who have had comments approved previously. Every time Reuters  approves a comment, the reader scores a point. Once the reader has reached a certain number of points, they become a “recognised user” whose comments will be published instantly. Editors will still review comments after publication.

“It’s not a perfect system, but we believe it’s a foundation for facilitating a civil and rewarding discussion that’s open to the widest range of people,” Baum said. ■