Vector variability of readers’ reactions in comments to news articles in online media

Abstract

The article discusses readers’ comments to online news articles in terms of their orientation and specifics. On the one hand, readers’ comments could be directed at the source article, its content or form, and the personality of the politicians mentioned in the text. Another vector of communication arises between readers who react to previous readers’ comments, which might lead to multi-vector dialogues and even conflicts between participants in online communication. In addition, a new communication channel is openned when the original text becomes a trigger for presenting commenter’s own positions which is not related to the main topic of the publication. Data excerpted from four popular Bulgarian online media were processed by means of content analysis. Seventeen different types of readers’ comments were identified and discussed in terms of their direction, frequency of occurrence and potential for provoking further comments and sustaining discussion among readers. Analysis showed that there is no single classification of readers’ reactions, and their direction depends on a number of factors, such as the topic of message, its relevance, commenter’s attitude to the topic, the number, quality and direction of previous comments, and thereader’s emotional involvement. Most numerous are comments on article topic, followed by reactions to previous readers’ opinions. Significantly fewer are negative reactions to people’s mentality and other commentators’ opinions, and to the article quality. Comments on images accompanying the text, on individual polititians, politics in general, journalists, moderators, and topics not directly related to the article, have smaller or zero generating potential.