The Imagined Audience for and Perceived Quality of News Comments: Exploring the Perceptions of Commenters on News Sites and on Facebook

Abstract

A number of news organizations have begun shifting commenting from their websites to Facebook, based on the implicit assumption that commenting on Facebook is an equivalent (or preferred) substitute. Using survey data from 317 online news commenters, and drawing on the concept of imagined audience, this article examines this assumption by comparing news commenters’ perceptions of imagined audiences for comments on news organizations’ websites and on Facebook. While news commenters had mostly different imagined audiences between the two platforms, they had similar evaluations of the personal dimensions of their audiences and the quality of news comments. News commenters on Facebook, for example, did not perceive their audiences to be any more reasonable, intelligent, or responsive—or any less aggressive—than did commenters on news organizations’ websites. Facebook commenters also did not perceive comments to be of any greater quality than did commenters on news organizations’ websites. Thus, it appears that at least in the context of aiming to elevate the quality and civility of civic discourse, news commenters do not perceive Facebook to be demonstrably better than news organizations’ websites. Implications for journalism, social media, and future research are discussed.