Pursuing the Ideal: How news website commenting policies structure public discourse

Many news organizations provide online readers with an opportunity to comment on public issues in the news through a news-mediated forum for discourse. These spaces are provided by news organizations as part of a mission to provide a public space for discourse, but are governed by a commenting policy that establishes the rules for discourse and behavior. These rules can help to meet the ideals of public discourse or stand in the way of productive public deliberation. This study examines the commenting policies of 21 news corporations in the United States to see how the policies facilitate or inhibit the creation of a space for ideal public discourse. A constant comparative analysis of the policies guided by the ideals of Habermas' public sphere, as well as the expectations of civility norms, shows that news organizations establish rules to protect respectful and egalitarian spaces for the public, but fail to meet other critical needs of public discourse, including rationality, tolerance, reflexivity, and the pursuit of common understanding and solutions. The implications of these findings are further explored and possible objectives for news organizations are provided.