Diversity below the line: Media pluralism through comments on public affairs news stories

Koskie, Timothy Benjamin

Diversity below the line: Media pluralism through comments on public affairs news stories

Koskie, Timothy Benjamin

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Publication Type:: Thesis
Issue Date:: 2022

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Koskie, Timothy Benjamin
dc.date.accessioned	2023-03-30T23:31:18Z
dc.date.available	2023-03-30T23:31:18Z
dc.date.issued	2022
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/168904
dc.description	University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Law.	en_US.UTF-8
dc.description.abstract	While media has long offered spaces for feedback and audience commentary, online news commenting has elevated this content into a widespread and complex contribution of diverse content. However, though comment sections often stretch on far longer than the articles they accompany, drawing in up to thousands of voices on their topic, their content remains out of scope of current approaches to media ecosystem assessments. Through this project, I sought to extend scholarship on media ecosystems and news commenting to demonstrate how their interaction carries implications for both. To explore this interaction, I adapted media pluralism metrics and indicators to incorporate news commenting as an extension of the media ecosystem in two countries – Australia and South Korea. I utilised qualitative content analysis to examine the most visible comments with the greatest reach in each media system, investigating 665 comment sections with 12,208 comments. I assessed this content for its contributions – and risks – for media pluralism, while simultaneously contextualising the outcomes in and as part of distinct media ecosystems. The results painted a complicated picture of what news commenting can offer or portend, bringing diverse viewpoints and information that competed with the content of the news organisations dominating their media ecosystems, while its distinct risks of silencing speech and redundant phatic commentary were broadly marginalised or entirely absent due to the sites’ structures and approaches. Comments’ constitution and presence in each case correlated to characteristics of the media ecosystem, suggesting that news commenting is significantly shaped by or reflective of its environment.	en_US.UTF-8
dc.format	Thesis (PhD)
dc.language.iso	en_US	en_US.UTF-8
dc.relation	https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/bitstream/10453/168904/2/02whole.pdf
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights	The author owns the copyright in this thesis including all reproduction and reuse rights for the work. The work may not be altered without the permission of the copyright owner. Attribution is essential when quoting or paraphrasing from this thesis.
dc.rights	© 2022 Timothy Benjamin Koskie
dc.rights	au.edu.uts.lib/ppc
dc.title	Diversity below the line: Media pluralism through comments on public affairs news stories	en_US.UTF-8
dc.type	Thesis
utslib.copyright.status	open_access	*

Abstract:

While media has long offered spaces for feedback and audience commentary, online news commenting has elevated this content into a widespread and complex contribution of diverse content. However, though comment sections often stretch on far longer than the articles they accompany, drawing in up to thousands of voices on their topic, their content remains out of scope of current approaches to media ecosystem assessments. Through this project, I sought to extend scholarship on media ecosystems and news commenting to demonstrate how their interaction carries implications for both. To explore this interaction, I adapted media pluralism metrics and indicators to incorporate news commenting as an extension of the media ecosystem in two countries – Australia and South Korea. I utilised qualitative content analysis to examine the most visible comments with the greatest reach in each media system, investigating 665 comment sections with 12,208 comments. I assessed this content for its contributions – and risks – for media pluralism, while simultaneously contextualising the outcomes in and as part of distinct media ecosystems. The results painted a complicated picture of what news commenting can offer or portend, bringing diverse viewpoints and information that competed with the content of the news organisations dominating their media ecosystems, while its distinct risks of silencing speech and redundant phatic commentary were broadly marginalised or entirely absent due to the sites’ structures and approaches. Comments’ constitution and presence in each case correlated to characteristics of the media ecosystem, suggesting that news commenting is significantly shaped by or reflective of its environment.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/168904