When was the last time you reached to buy a newspaper or magazine?
Ofcom has found that: "National newspaper circulation in the UK has decreased from 22 million in 2010 to 10.4 million in 2018, a decline of 52.5%."
In a world dominated by digital journalism, there are endless opportunities and challenges awaiting journalists. However, one of the journalists' biggest challenges has and always will be keeping their readers engaged.
So what a better way than to engage readers than allowing them to interact with what they are actually reading by introducing reader comments?
Unfortunately, the internet has its dark side. Even readers themselves. It isn't wrong to express your opinion and that's the basic principle of reader comments in the first place. This then encourages discussion and debate.
But how far exactly does Freedom of Speech go? Where do journalists draw the line? Who actually decides who is right and who is wrong?
"I think a baseline is not allowing comments that incite hatred and violence," Tom Taylor, Journalist and Digital Editor for Epigram Paper, said. "I think, on the whole, the view that everyone should be allowed to say whatever they want is a load of nonsense when you are providing a platform for those views.
Guardian Journalist Daniel Levitt said: "Freedom of speech should protect the opinions of everyone, until they become offensive or hateful in any way. But that's the very dilemma freedom of speech poses: What is hate speech? Where is the line? There's no mathematical formula, so it has to be taken with great consideration by the journalists moderating the comments."
Consequently, many news outlets like Reuters, The Verge and Recode have shut down their reader comments. However, Reuters said they made this decision because they believe readers "watch video, use graphics and calculators and relate to content far differently than in the past."
Clearly, as much as journalists want to encourage readers to engage with and discuss what they are reading, there is, unfortunately, no fool-proof way of solving every challenge reader comments bring.
On the other hand, some online news outlets have introduced Community Standards.
This is where they write out a set of rules that readers must follow when commenting on the news. This then allows readers to still engage with what they're reading which in turn encourages discussion - a discussion which is hopefully a lot more healthy and non-offensive.
Some of those who have kept reader comments have also hired Comment Moderators to further ensure people are not crossing the line.
Taylor said: "I think reader comments are useful if they are moderated. Quite a lot of reader comments quickly descend into personal attacks, abuse etc whereas if they are properly moderated they can add to the discussion."
On the other hand, Levitt said: "For example, comments for The Guardian are likely to be of more depth and quality than, say, The Daily Mail, mainly because of the difference in the quality of content. The future also depends on the outlet. In my opinion, they serve very little purpose and should be disabled."Â Â
It is clear that there are many ways both journalists view reader comments, however, it seems like many are still questioning if there is more they can do to ensure that reader comments remain and are put to good use.
So, what do you think? Are journalists doing enough, and what do you think they should consider when it comes to deciding to keep or scrap reader comments?
By Abby K Lake