The article by Anders Sundnes Løvlie, of IT University of Copenhagen, Karoline Andrea Ihlebæk, of University of Oslo and Anders Olof Larsson, of Westerdals Oslo School of Arts, studies users’ attitudes towards editorial control in online newspaper comment fields after the 2011 terror attacks in Norway. The data is from a survey of participants in the comment fields of four newspapers.

The results show that the  “interventionists” rate the quality of the debates as poor and tend to feel that there is a need for stronger editorial control. The “noninterventionists” have most often experienced being the target of editorial control measures.

The authors conclude that newspapers should pay attention to the different needs of participants and to increase the transparency of moderation practices.

The article “User Experiences with Editorial Control in Online Newspaper Comment Fields” was published online by Journalism Practice. It is available here.

Picture: vernedyktighetsmedaljen flickr (33 of 50) by Soldatnytt, licence: CC BY 2.0