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tonyPick [soylentnews.org] writes:

According to a report at Quartz research confirms that for many online commenters, the article is beside the point [qz.com]

More than half of the people who leave comments on news stories spend as much or more time on the comments as with the actual story, according to the study, from the Engaging News Project at the University of Texas at Austin. Almost 20% cop to spending more time on the comment section than on the story.

The results are part of an extensive examination of the people who comment on news organizations’ websites, social media pages, apps, and in other forums. Talia Stroud, the study’s lead author and an associate professor of communications at Austin, presented her report at a SXSW panel this week looking at news organizations’ vexed relationship with user comments.

The Engaging News Project [engagingnewsproject.org] has a summary of the conclusions, and offers a direct download of the report (PDF) [engagingnewsproject.org].

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