On Digital Gatekeeping: A Study On Comment Moderation Through Facebook Comments

University of Santo Tomas
Faculty of Arts and Letters
Undergraduate Thesis AB in Journalism

program
2017-2018
On digital gatekeeping: A study on comment

moderation through Facebook comments
Kristelyn Bondoc Aguilar and Calvin Kaiser Valencia Teodoro
Recommended citation:
Aguilar, Kristelyn B. & Teodoro, Calvin Kaiser V. (2018). ―On digital gatekeeping: a study on
comment moderation through Facebook comments.‖ Undergraduate thesis, Journalism,
University of Santo Tomas.
UST was acknowledged a Center of Development in journalism by the Commission on

Higher Education (CHEd) on June 2013.
Abstract
Facebook has become an important platform for reading and
commenting instantly on news. Its comment section became a forum where
users can discuss various issues and say their personal indignations. Varying
comments called for a new means to filter these ―instant feedbacks‖ that may
affect the engagement within the community, hence the need to monitor the
comment section. This digital gatekeeping strategy or now known as
comment moderation is a means that allow news organizations to either reply
on comments that they deem worthy of a response of any kind or delete it
because of its possible harm to the brand and other users.
This research aimed to determine the comment moderation strategies
used by news organizations in the Philippines. The comment moderation
strategies were identified by interviewing social media managers and online
news editors of the country‘s mainstream news organizations.
After analysing data gathered from the respondents, the Chain of
Comment Moderation was developed to systematically explain the process of
comment moderation as shared by the online journalists. It was found that
with the growth of interaction around online news media, news sites were
found to have increasingly become places for communities to discuss and
address common issues spurred by news articles. The research was an
attempt to examine whether comment moderation helped in user engagement
and managing comment quality.
Keywords: comment moderation, Facebook, gatekeeping, online journalism

APPROVAL SHEET
This thesis titled
On digital gatekeeping: A study on

comment moderation through Facebook comments
prepared and submitted by
Kristelyn B. Aguilar and Calvin Kaiser V. Teodoro
has been approved and accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for
the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.
MS. JANNIS T. MONTAÑEZ

Adviser
PANEL OF EXAMINERS
Approved by the Research Tribunal on Oral Examination with a grade of 1.50

on the 30th of April, in the Year of Our Lord 2018.
MR. FELIPE F. SALVOSA II MS. MARISHELLE R. MEDINA

Panelist Panelist
MR. FELIPE F. SALVOSA II, M.A.

Coordinator, Journalism
ASST. PROF. JOSE ARSENIO J. SALANDANAN, M.S.

Chairman, Department of Communication and Media Studies
PROF. MICHAEL ANTHONY C. VASCO, Ph.D.

Dean, Faculty of Arts and Letters
UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS
FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS
Department of Communication and Media Studies
Journalism Program
This is to certify that the thesis titled ON DIGITAL GATEKEEPING: A

STUDY ON COMMENT MODERATION THROUGH FACEBOOK
COMMENTS, submitted by KRISTELYN B. AGUILAR and CALVIN KAISER
V. TEODORO in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Bachelor
of Arts in Journalism, has passed the originality screening required by the
Faculty of Arts and Letters, through Blackboard Safe Assign, with a
similarity rating of 2 percent.
Mr. Felipe F. Salvosa II

Thesis Coordinator
Date: April 30, 2018

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We would like to thank our parents for supporting us with love and
understanding.
Our adviser, Ms. Jannis T. Montañez, for her patience and for
guiding us in writing our paper.
To our professors, our friends, and everyone who became integral
in the process of conducting this research.
To God, for everything else.
Thank you.
Kristelyn B. Aguilar
Calvin Kaiser V. Teodoro

UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE
6
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page
Preliminary Pages
Abstract
Approval Sheet
SafeAssign Certificate
Acknowledgment
Table of Contents
List of Tables and Figures
Chapter 1.0
Introduction 9
1.1 Statement of the Problem 13
Chapter 2.0
Literature Review
2.1. Review of Related Literature and Studies 15
2.2. Theoretical Framework 27
Chapter 3.0
Design
3.1. Selection and Study Site 33
3.2. Data Measure 36
3.3. Data Collection Procedure 36
3.4. Ethical Considerations 37
3.5. Mode of Analysis 38
7
Chapter 4.0
Findings 40
Chapter 5.0
Discussion 66
Chapter 6.0
Conclusion 79
References 83
Appendices
A. Interview questions 89
B. Personal data sheet (Robotfoto) 90
C. Consent and confidentiality form (for respondents) 91
About the Authors

8
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Tables
Table 1: Profile of Respondents 34
Table 2: Kinds of comment moderation training 43
Table 3: Kinds of stories with the
most moderated comments 45
Table 4: Kinds of comments that are most moderated 48
Table 5: Kinds of comment moderation strategies 50
Table 6: Major assessments of comment
moderators post-comment moderation 60
Figures
Figure 1: Chain of Comment Moderation 41
9
Chapter 1.0
Introduction
Commenting has been a revolutionary means for the public to
respond to news produced by different media organizations (Weber, 2013;
Carey & Meyer, 2015).
Since the internet has made comments instant, feedback
immediate, and discussion archiving easier, it turned the comment section
into a forum for public criticism, personal indignation, and one‘s
frustrations (Carey & Meyer, 2015; Krämer & Rösner, 2016).
Reader comments are especially interesting in the perspective of
digital democracy, and how these internet-based interaction support a
deliberative public sphere of rational communication, public opinion
formation, or otherwise (Weber, 2013).
When news organizations allow comment threads on their stories,
or when they rebrand their columns as blogs, they easily acquire
comments from online users, regardless of whether the journalists at
these organizations intend to engage with them or not (Braun & Gillespie,
2011).
10
Traditional news organizations (newspaper, television, radio) have
been seeking ways to establish a sustainable online presence and expand
the news experience of their readers by incorporating ―interactive
mechanisms‖ and enabling comment sections of their online platforms
(Domingo, Heinonen, Paulussen, Quandt, Reich, Singer & Vujnovic, 2008;
Weber, 2013).
Indeed, on the array of website features, commenting on the news
is the most common form of engagement since this is also the most widely
offered participation opportunity in the contemporary news use (Domingo
et al., 2008). These also allow building brand loyalty among users by
letting them comment on the news, talk to journalists and editors, and
potentially engage in dialogue with other users (Braun & Gillespie, 2011).
However, with the prevalence of internet use meant the prevalence
of impoliteness – using expletives and having tones unbecoming of a
public forum – and trolling – deliberately making offensive remarks to cite
anger within conversation – on these comment sections, the challenge for
contemporary journalism then is to develop a strategy that can recognize
and articulate different opinions without losing its ability to foster
meaningful public deliberation (Kunelius & Renvall, 2010).
This is why comment moderation is being used by news
organizations. It is a form of gatekeeping that monitors the significance of

11
deciding what to report and the significance of deciding which user
contributions to keep and which to delete (Braun & Gillespie, 2011;
Nielsen, 2014). It mandates journalists to rethink its relationship with the
audience (Carey & Meyer, 2015).
Gatekeepers in the newsroom regulate the flow of information and
knowledge, using varying criteria to control which stories makes it into the
newspaper (Bachmann & Harlow, 2012; Nielsen, 2014). This is the means
by which journalists filter and select information which they deem as
―newsworthy‖ and also the overall process through which the social reality
transmitted by the news media is constructed (Bachmann & Harlow,
2012).
Different response styles to comments deem different reactions
which directly affects the evaluation of audiences to the news
organization, its credibility, quality of its stories and their willingness to
participate in the discussion (Jost & Ziegele, 2016). That is why news
organizations have to decide what form of comment moderation will
maintain the discourse of their social networking sites, avoiding legal
liabilities, and tarnishing their organization‘s brand and reputation, while
preserving their journalistic ideals (Braun & Gillespie, 2011; Jost &
Ziegele, 2016).
12
The internet challenges to some extent the prominence of the role
of mass media in showing public opinion, since the nature of the internet
makes it possible for anyone to interact with others and encourages
greater citizen participation in the expression of public opinion (Kim,
2015).
The complex interplay between the commenters and the
approaches towards managing quality within a journalistic context being
executed by moderators was examined. Through face-to-face interviews
with social media managers of ABS-CBN News, GMA News Online,
Inquirer.net, Philippine Star, Manila Bulletin and Rappler, the study sought
to determine their various strategies in gatekeeping the comment section
of their Facebook pages. It was also necessary to identify the assessment
of the comment moderators after applying these techniques in their social
media platform. Hence, the extent to which professional journalists
actually value these kinds of contributions, their own involvement, or why
one would take responsibility for content which is sometimes out of control
was explored.
13
1.1. Statement of the Problem
A major element that will affect the study is to discover the
comment moderation strategies used by national news organizations in
the Facebook comment sections of their news articles.
The study aimed to (a) identify the preliminary steps taken by news
organizations to select the strategies used in responding to comments on
their Facebook posts, (b) determine the kinds of comments these
journalists choose to moderate, (c) determine the comment moderation
strategies employed by news organizations on Facebook and its
corresponding benefits and challenges and (d) determine the observations
of comment moderators on the comment sections after employing
comment moderation strategies.
In order to understand more of the comment section‘s potential
within journalism, it must be ascertained how journalists view the roles and
practices to meet the challenges brought about by an influx of reader
participation in the form of comment threads.
Furthermore, the supposed value of moderating comments in terms
of whether or not they have an effect on the news organization in terms of
their engagement and their perceived quality was analyzed. It was also
14
imperative to look into the editorial involvement in terms of moderation and
journalists engaging in the commentary threads.
The technology that has enabled online comments provided an
interesting avenue for study because its purpose has not been clearly
defined and depends upon whose values have been foregrounded. It is
here that readers post their opinion following an online news story, and
however much community interaction taking place therein, one thing
appears evident: there are instances when comments are uncivil and
occasionally uncouth (Santana, 2013).
With the growing interest in the interactivity of news, the quality of
the discussion anchored around online news stories is of paramount
importance to news organizations wishing to stimulate public criticism,
debate, and discussion while maintaining a credible community profile.

15
Chapter 2.0
Literature Review
2.1. Review of Related Literature and Studies
The literature review explored topics related to the use of Facebook
by news organizations, comment moderation and incivility to explain how
these factors affected user involvement in news organizations‘ Facebook
pages. It provided background on how and why the online platform,
Facebook, has become an important social networking site (SNS) tool for
reading and commenting on news.
In addition to Facebook‘s function in the newsroom, the chapter
also delved on the amount of incivility caused by the sociality and
interactivity boosted by online media platforms. With this at hand, this
study explicated comment moderation as a gatekeeping strategy done by
journalists to monitor the content posted by users on their Facebook
pages‘ comment sections. Since the literature lacked information
regarding the relationship of all these variables and whether it affected the
amount of user involvement in news organizations‘ Facebook pages, this
thesis aimed to compensate for this gap.

16
In today‘s online media landscape, comment sections function as a
site for voicing news consumers‘ opinions toward news topics or other
user comments (Berg & Strandberg, 2013). Reader comments can be
immediately published, has large amounts of space and minimal
censorship. These characteristics gave the ability to open up possibilities
for readers to participate without the limitation of space in print
newspapers‘ letters to the editor or public section. The question at hand
with the research they conducted was whether the democratic potential of
citizen discussion could be fulfilled in the form of comments. Their method
focused on four areas of interest in order to measure the conditions for
deliberation: rationality of the debates, relevance of the topic of the
debates, reciprocity of debates and degree of politeness and respect in
debates.
Their findings showed that reader comments do not readily
constitute democratic conversations because of using anonymity in the
website were enabled. This let the commenters to avoid taking
responsibility for his or her opinion. The relevance of their result to this
study is how gatekeeping in the comment sections could possibly have an
effect on the quality of discussions, also given the fact that Facebook
reveals the name of the commenter.

17
Al-Rawi (2017) examined the news dissemination practice of Arabic
news organizations on social networking sites (SNSs), particularly, on
Facebook since it has become an important tool for reading and
commenting on news. According to Ju et al. (2013), as cited in Al-Rawi‘s
study, a new form of news subscription was made possible when users
―like‖ a Facebook page of a news organization and they begin receiving its
news feeds through this. In addition to this, Mitchell and Rosentiel (2012),
as cited in the same study, observed online users consume more news
through Facebook pages than on Twitter and other SNS, especially after
introducing the Facebook Social Reader. This allowed users to read and
share news articles without having to open links outside Facebook. Al-
Rawi found that SNSs offer news opportunities for news organizations to
reach more audiences in social media platforms such as Facebook. These
platforms have encouraged users to consume, share, like and disseminate
news as well as interact with others on a variety of issues.
Indeed, an important attribute of internet and SNSs like Facebook
is its capacity to facilitate communication through sharing information and
experience. Dalhgren (2012) explored the Web environment from the
standpoint of its enhanced capacity to enable citizens to engage with their
societies and its involvement with journalistic activities. He found that
social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have

18
become important institutions for public sphere, a social space where
different opinions are expressed. More importantly, journalism has
become more interactive, diverse, collaborative and immediate because of
the advent of technological transition in media platforms.
Online reader comments in response to news organizations‘
content have become one of the most common formats of audience
participation in journalism. Initially, the audience only commented on
media platforms themselves, but Facebook made it possible to outsource
commenting to a third-party platform (Bakker & Hille, 2014). A research by
the Pew Research Center in 2015 showed 63% of Facebook users get
news from this SNS. Facebook users, not just news users, are also more
likely to directly engage on the site through posts, comments and likes. A
new form of subscription had been produced when SNS users like a
Facebook page and begin receiving its content. Bakker and Hille
examined comments from news outlets and Facebook qualitatively using
text analysis tool MAXQDA. Outsourcing comments to Facebook is
preferred by news organizations even if their own platforms have its own
comment system. They also found that majority of media they researched
apply post-moderation or moderating comments after being posted.
Whether the result of their study could be applied to the Philippine setting
is what this research study aimed to delve on to.

19
As what other studies also emphasized, this commentary and
debate space provided by the internet creates an easy and accessible
communication between the journalists and news consumers. Let alone, it
opens up prospects for the possibility of having a productive public
discourse regarding the news issues (Weber, 2013). By adapting Galtung
and Ruge‘s theory of newsworthiness, Weber hypothesized that various
news characteristics can affect participation and interactivity in a news
item‘s comments section. The results were consistent with the hypothesis
because it was found that news factors indeed contribute to the number of
engagements news organizations could gain through the comments
section. They attributed this to four factors from Galtung and Ruge‘s
theory of newsworthiness namely proximity, impact, continuity and
frequency. Their study complements with this research as it shows how
news factors influence the overall amount of reader comments. Given this,
the question at hand is whether this number of engagement could change
if journalists or comment moderators also interact with its audience.
However, a degree of uncivil behavior is the price of a prospering
online forum causing news organizations to monitor their comments
section (Cutino & Groshek, 2016; Atkin & Wu, 2016). Scholars used to
blame the occurrence of incivility on the option to be anonymous in the
Internet as some previous studies have proven. However, even with less
20
anonymous platforms in social networking sites, users still write
aggressive comments. Krämer and Rösner (2016) delved on this by
conducting an experiment determine the effects of interactions side by
side with anonymity, no anonymity, aggressive norm and non-aggressive
norm in online comments section. Results reveal that anonymity did not
affect the use of aggressive expressions in online comments, although
participants are susceptible to influence by the tone of other users. This
implied that online comments were not only able to influence opinions, but
also affected behavior. This study enabled to understand further the
commenting behaviors of commenters and may be substantial in terms of
finding a gatekeeping strategy that could address the question of incivility
in the comments section.
Cutino and Groshek (2016), on the other hand, explored mobile
media‘s potential to sharpen the prevalence of incivility in communicating
online. Historically, internet was considered as a medium that erased ties
to identity and hierarchy since it was conceived as a great democratizer or
a virtual public sphere, said Papacharissi (2002), as cited in Cutino and
Groshek‘s research (2016). Given that the internet has no real location, its
lack of context encouraged more casual interaction among people. This
equalizing nature of the online environment have the potential to give
voice while also silence users. Thus, it is important to consider the tone of
21
communication in online environments. Cutino and Groshek‘s research
used Twitter to collect content regarding several controversial issues and
examined them to determine whether mobile or web-based content tended
to gear more towards incivility or impoliteness. They further analyzed this
content by seeing if explicitly mentioning other users and retweeting
others‘ post may relate to the hostility in the discussion. The research
found that mobile communication is more uncivil than content posted from
web. In addition to this, user mentions and retweets coupled with mobility
contributed to an impolite discourse. This study contributed to a better
understanding of how individuals express themselves on mobile devices
as these are rapidly becoming normalized medium for communicating
online. The pattern that they had gathered with interactions from Twitter
may supplement this research in discovering the increased incivility on
Facebook.
Some scholars who have examined the ways in which news sites
and social media must contend with unruly user contributions have
appropriated the metaphor of gatekeeping, to draw a parallel between the
significance of deciding what to report to the significance of deciding which
user contributions to keep and which to delete. They examined the inverse
and converging movement of two sets of institutions: news organizations,
as they find that part of their mission necessarily includes hosting an

22
unruly user community that does not always play by the norms of
journalism; and online media platforms and social networks designed for
users to share content, as they find that the content being shared is often
much like news, some of which challenges their established user
guidelines. It led to a renewed interest for a new ‗gatekeeping‘ strategy
that will moderate the kind of content that audiences generate for other
readers to see (Braun & Gillespie, 2011). This may be in a form of
screening and removing of inappropriate messages or simply replying to
user comments (Carey & Meyer, 2015).
Incivility in the comment section or verbal aggression is
characterized by the use of words rather than physical attacks to do harm
such as insults, defamation, threats, or profanity which can take place
face-to-face or computer-mediated (Krämer & Rösner, 2016). It also varies
to forms of expressions such as contempt, disgust, insults or hatred.
Swearing has become commonplace in technology-mediated
discussions, especially in online news platform. Due to the growth of
sociality and interaction in online news media, comment sections of media
organization‘ SNS are increasingly becoming communities where people
can discuss and address any issues spurred by news articles
(Diakopoulous & Naanman, 2011). News items provoke emotions and
cause high-arousal emotions such as anger and frustration especially in

23
contemporary political environment — from debates to election
campaigns, to media coverage and most of all, to citizen discussions (Cho
& Kwon, 2017).
Indeed, one of the chief defining characteristics of these boards has
become the rampant incivility – a dilemma many newspapers have
struggled with as they seek to strengthen the value of the online dialogue.
Anonymity is the reason for offensive comments as many journalists and
people form the industry have pointed out. Some have addressed the
problem by disabling comments on certain topics, disallowing anonymity
or abandoning the forums altogether. There is still lack of empirical
evidence that in the academe regarding anonymity‘s effect on
commenters‘ behavior despite the claim. Santana‘s (2014) research found
that while faced with the reality that more people are reading the news
online than in print, newspapers have adapted by trying to build a loyal,
online audience by making the news-consumption experience more
engaging. Newspaper commenting forums have nevertheless engendered
harmful consequences that newspapers are finding increasingly difficult to
ignore. Incivility quickly became apparent soon after many newspapers
launched their commenting forums nearly 10 years ago, and many
newspapers are still struggling with how to raise the level of online
discourse.
24
Comment moderation has been a prominent trend emerging from
social media threads of news organizations utilizing the medium. This is
mostly noticeable in the comments section of multi-platform social
networking site (SNS), Facebook, a venue seen as a community forum
where everyone can engage with anyone regarding a specific post that
has piqued their interests (Atkin & Wu, 2016).
The approach of comment moderation puts an impact on the kind
of responses news organizations get. The options users have, the rules
commenters are obliged to follow, and the moderation regime they
confront, could influence the quantity and quality of comments (Bakker
and Hille, 2014). Although their ultimate desire is to express their opinions
and interact with other commenters, a shift is present in commenters‘
attitudes as to the same attitude presented by the comment moderators
and their various means of moderation (Canter, 2013).
Citizen participation is happening globally but is approached in
unique ways generating varying prospects for audience engagement
(Chung and Nah, 2014). Their findings show that both groups work
through collaboration, checks and balances, and a negotiation of
autonomy. In an effort to remain sustainable in the contemporary media
culture, both benefit from the partnership and share similarities, rather
than differences. Indeed, news outlets that offered the opportunity to

25
comment are perceived by audiences as more credible (Carey & Meyer,
2015). However, active participation is mostly affected by whether or not
moderation in the comments section is present and how it is being
executed by the moderators. Factual moderation made audiences
perceive a deliberative discussion and indirectly increases participation
rates; whereas sarcastic moderation lowered the credibility of the news
outlet and indirectly deteriorates participation rates. This meant that this
gatekeeping strategy puts weight to how users will phrase their opinion
and evaluate the discussions (Jost & Ziegele, 2016).
The question remains on the actual vitality of comment moderation.
As the audience has the command over how they want to respond, there
is a need to study for actual moderation of content and its efficiency in
reducing incivility on the comment sections. Comment moderators may
have been deemed as necessary to review the quality of feedback
garnered by online news organizations in their social media handles, but
this form of gatekeeping does not actually equate to a civil conversation.
Henceforth, still giving the public their freedom to the kind of reply they
provide, control and moderation notwithstanding (Braun & Gillespie,
2011).
There is a lack of uniformity across newsrooms in managing
readers‘ comments. Some news organizations implement a readers‘

26
comments section for every online news story while others decide on a
story-by-story basis. Some journalists are required to monitor comments
for their own stories, while other journalists work for news organizations
that have sophisticated multi-layered systems where a combination of
software and human monitors are in place (Loke, 2011). Since journalists‘
involvement in the process of hosting readers‘ comments vary,
determining the processes or strategies they implement when choosing
which comment to reply to must be further looked into.
Comment moderation is called for at the time when posting ethics
become questionable. The quality of online news comments is of
importance to news organizations that want to provide a valuable
exchange of ideas and maintain credibility within the community, hence
the need to monitor these discussions. (Diakopoulous & Naanman, 2011).
This is also in regard to the freedom granted to users with the kind of
comment they put up on news articles, ranging from personal opinions to
harsh analyses (Cho & Kwon, 2017). However, how far must journalists
filter in order to maintain a productive discourse?
Comments put impact on other comments as much as comment
moderation does. Online comments do not only influence viewers‘
opinions and attitudes, but also affects their behaviors (Krämer & Rösner,
2016; Cutino & Groshek, 2016). Participants were seen to be influenced

27
by the tone of other users who were using more aggressive expressions
than those less using it (Cutino & Groshek, 2016). In fact, the content of
comment sections can be more powerful regarding their perspective on its
credibility than the source itself in the online news context (Kim, 2015;
Sikorski & Hänelt, 2016). This study intends to delve into the impact of
incivility or use of swearwords in online public commenting in journalists‘
decision-making when gatekeeping the comment section of their
Facebook pages.
2.2. Theoretical framework
This study was founded on previous principles, theories and
concepts that have proven its significance in understanding the
relationship between online participation of audiences and the respective
avenues of their interaction – social media platforms of news
organizations. Among many notions presented in relation to the
moderation of comments by news organizations, several concepts have
stood out to wholly expound the case at hand, the impact of instant
commenting on news stories and how gatekeeping enters the picture.
With the prevalence of Facebook commenting and the incivility that
came with it, the gatekeeping theory was significant in analyzing the
28
decision-making process behind the strategies of news organizations in
comment moderation. In the traditional journalistic culture, the term
gatekeeper indicates editors‘ and journalists‘ claim to be the ones who
decide what makes news. Gatekeeping is the process of ―culling and
crafting‖ numerous information to limited number of messages that reach
people (Shoemaker & Vos, 2009). Narrowing so many messages require
strategies or processes that will determine which information should be
mediated. The notion of gatekeeping calls for understanding on the
practices of moderating online users‘ comments. The gatekeeper decides
what information should remain or be removed. The gatekeeper role is
also maintained and enforced by professional routines and conventions
which are to guarantee the quality of institutional journalism (Domingo et
al., 2008). However, new possibilities of audience participation through the
prevalence of internet and social media use present a challenge for the
gatekeeping of news organizations.
In the newsroom, comment moderators or social media managers
play the role in gatekeeping the comment sections. Their news outlets
have their own policies and guidelines on how to moderate the comment
sections. Events happen all the time and news media cannot monitor all of
them. This research aimed to identify what strategies news organizations

29
apply with the advent of commenting and receiving feedback immediately
through their Facebook pages.
Aside from the gatekeeping theory, the Web 2.0 is also applicable
to the study. It is a model that gives users the capacity to interact and
socialize with other online users in a social media sphere to create content
in a virtual community. Inside Web 2.0 are social networking sites (SNS),
various blogs and online sharing sites, hosting platforms, and other web
applications.
This model gave rise to new technologies, and further development
of a Web 2.0, characterized by its interactive features and user-generated
content, have meant a blurring of what actual interactive journalism is,
potentially transforming how it is practiced and who is doing it. Such a
fundamental shift brings with it an assortment of challenges and
opportunities, as news organizations look to incorporate more interactivity
in order to attract more readers, while still maintaining the traditional
gatekeeping function so central to a journalist‘s identity (Bachmann and
Harlow, 2011).
Facebook commenting as a new method of the old feedback
system will be relevant in the understanding of the study. Comments on
Facebook can be read by all Facebook users and are linked to personal
accounts (Bakker and Hille, 2014).

30
This revolutionary principle allows audiences to immediately voice
their reactions on a specific event that piques their interest. However, as it
is mandatory to use one‘s own account when commenting, keeping one‘s
identity in secret will be rather problematic. The loss of anonymity ensures
that Facebook commenters become more hesitant about posting abusive
and offensive comments. Also, maximizing the use of Facebook
comments could also generate more traffic to social news sites (Bakker
and Hille, 2014).
Through strategic analysis of the use of Facebook and
commenting, the study aimed to understand the relationship between the
distribution of audience participation and their tone and quality of
discussion across different news stories.
In addition to this, Kovach and Rosenstiel‘s theory of interlocking
public revolved around an audience‘s interest in subjects presented to
them. This theory assumed that there are three possible levels of
engagement, ―I don‘t care at all,‖ ―I‘m intrigued/interested,‖ and ―I‘m very
passionate about it. This theory assumes that people have something they
are interested about and the topics with most interested audiences are
deemed to be significant issues.
In this research, it was aimed to identify the topics of articles where
users comment on the most. With this theory, matters that were of
31
importance to the public were ascertained by identifying which online
news sections have higher engagement in terms of comments. This theory
puts forth a logical and useful way to view the audiences.
Even though journalists are forced to navigate through the new
electronic landscape of social media, journalists should recognize and
embrace the potential of readers‘ comments. After all, journalism should
ideally be fueled by public participation. Nevertheless, the era of electronic
public participation brings a host of new challenges with many readers‘
comments sections offering anonymity coupled with the unsurpassed
convenience for participation (Loke, 2011).

32
Chapter 3.0
Design
The research aimed to describe the nature of comment moderation
in a news organization‘s Facebook pages based on the perspective of
comment moderators. It aimed to fill the gaps in the literature on various
strategies used by news organizations on their Facebook pages as well as
the kinds of comments they decide to moderate either by replying, deleting
or hiding. Procedures were taken in planning the peripherals of every
aspect affecting the outcome of the study – focusing on discovering the
different comment moderation strategies used by Philippine news
organizations in the comment section of their news articles, specifically in
the Facebook pages of these news organizations, based on the
experiences of the journalists who handle their social media platforms.
The study engaged with qualitative approaches to identify new
insights that may be relevant to the subject of comment moderation.
Evaluative concepts were used to analyze findings taken from the
research. Understanding whether comment moderation motivates
audience participation allow for a broader environment the study can leap
on. The design enables flexibility and a more holistic viewpoint into the
33
concept of gatekeeping and its influence on the amount of engagement in
a news organization‘s Facebook page. It also presents a number of
sources that may strengthen the validity of the study itself. This chapter of
the study is divided into five portions: 1) selection and study site, 2) data
measure, 3) data collection procedure, 3) ethical consideration, and 5)
mode of analysis.
3.1. Selection and Study Site
Respondents. The respondents for the interviews were journalists
handling the Facebook pages of different news organizations, namely, 1)
ABS-CBN News Online, 2) GMA News Online, 3) Rappler, 4)
Philstar.com, 5) Inquirer.net, and 6) Manila Bulletin.
The researchers interviewed seven respondents coming from the
said news organizations in the country. One respondent participated in the
study through email/online messaging while the rest of the respondents
were interviewed face-to-face. Also, two of the respondents came from
one news organization, with one being a social media manager and the
other, an online editor. The respondents were either social media
managers of their respective news organizations or online editors in
charge of handling their Facebook pages.

34
Table 1. Profile of Respondents
Demographics Details
Gender Male, 3
Female, 4
News media affiliation Newspaper, 5
Television, 1
Online, 1
Years of news media experience One-to-five years, 2
Six-to-ten years, 3
Over ten years, 2
Work description Social media manager, 3
Online editor, 4
Selection process. Various media organizations with Facebook
pages were contacted and asked whether they moderate the comment
sections of their Facebook pages or not. Only the aforementioned news
organizations confirmed that they conduct comment moderation in their
Facebook pages. The interviewees' eligibility was based on their role as
social media managers or online editors of their news organizations' online
platforms, as recommended by other journalists who work in the said
media outlet.
Respondent M1 is the social media manager for the online
platform of a major broadsheet. This journalist has been in the industry for
12 years.
Respondent M2 is an online news writer. This journalist also
monitors the comment sections of their online platforms.

35
Respondent M3 is the social media producer of a social news
network. This journalist has been in the industry for almost five years.
Respondent M4 is the associate editor for social media of a major
broadsheet's online platform.
Respondent M5 is part of the social media team of a major
Respondent M6 is a senior online content editor of a major
Respondent M7 is a journalist-lecturer from a major broadcasting
channel. This journalist established the Social Media and Mobile Unit of
their news organization, which administers their social media accounts.
Individual interviews were done face-to-face. The questions
focused on knowing how they dealt with the comment sections of their
respective Facebook pages as well as its direct or indirect effect on the
amount of engagement they receive after moderation. It also delved on
the quality of discourse on their Facebook comment threads before and
after moderation.
36
3.2. Data Measure
The interview questionnaire consisted of ten questions on social
media protocol, comment moderation, and adaptation to the Facebook
platform. The interviews were done face-to-face with the respondents to
maximize the possible data that can be collected. An interview guide (see
Appendix A) was provided containing a briefing of the study, the general
questions and overall flow of the interview per se. The interviews were
aimed to gather the data that will ultimately identify the strategies
employed by these news organizations in responding to comments on
their news articles, classify which comments these news organizations
respond to and which they prefer to ignore, thereby answering the
research objectives of the study.
Robotfotos or personal data sheets for the research respondents
were also used to note of the interviewees‘ contact information. The filled
out forms were kept by the researchers and will be used should there be
clarifications in the data gathered from the interviews.
3.3. Data Collection Procedure
After formulating the interview questions and seeking approval from
the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the UST Journalism Program,

37
letters of request for interviews along with the interview guide (see
Appendix A) were sent to the interviewees containing questions which
were essential to answering the objectives of the study.
At least ten questions were asked from the respondents regarding
their experiences with comment moderation and its possible impact.
Interviews were recorded and were later transcribed.
The following stages were taken – 1) preparation of questions for
the respondents to be approved by the Institutional Review Board, 2)
thorough research of possible respondents and identifying who qualifies
for the study, 3) initial communication with respondents through email and
contact numbers coming from journalism professors, 4) scheduling an
interview with the respondents based on their available time, 5)
respondents‘ orientation before interview proper, giving a background of
the study and an overview of the interview, 6) the interview itself, and 7)
transcription and data-analysis from the interviews.
3.4. Ethical Consideration
Personal information regarding the interviewees was withheld for
confidentiality. Interviews were scheduled weeks before it materialized,
making sure of the respondents‘ willingness to proceed with the meeting.

38
No interviewees were given compensation, monetary or otherwise. The
interviewees filled out a profile sheet to allow for archiving of necessary
information pertaining to their identities. Consent forms were also signed
by the respondents ensuring their 1) full cooperation in the study, 2)
participation was voluntary, 3) answers and the data collected from the
interview will be solely used for the study and shall not be reproduced for
other means.
The respondents were informed of the general scope of the
interview ahead of time, and recording devices were acknowledged and
were used with permission from each interviewee. Before the interview
started, each respondent was given a brief explanation of the study and
how their answers will benefit the research.
3.5. Mode of Analysis
The researchers were able to determine the comment moderation
strategies and their impact on user engagement through the narratives of
comment moderators/journalists of various news organizations. Data
gathered from the interviews were categorized based on the questions
found to have related concepts. Through a comparison of the interview
transcripts, the answers were analyzed through different themes that

39
answer parts of the research questions. The results from the interviews
were coded with the use of George Kelly's Repertory Grid (Rogers &
Ryals, 2007). The shared experiences of the respondents with the concept
were organized and differentiated in relation to the attributes that were
deemed necessary to the research, labeled themes.
With the use of the Repertory Grid, the responses taken from the
gathering process were individually checked (cool analysis), coded and
then filed under different themes and further subthemes (warm analysis)
to identify the comment moderation strategies of different news
organizations and the effects it brought to user engagement.
The findings were listed into tables (Chapter 4.0, Findings)
explaining the themes used by the researchers to organize the gathered
data. Subthemes were also formulated by the researchers to further
explain the findings and evidences in the form of quotes from the
interviews were also placed to support the claims of the researchers.

40
Chapter 4.0
Findings
The data collected from the interviews with comment moderators of
different news organizations were carefully analyzed to identify the
responses that were deemed necessary for the research. These answers
were organized to systematically enumerate each findings and its
relevance to the study. All the information, taken from the shared
experiences of the comment moderators, was derived by the researchers
to form the Chain of Comment Moderation.
Chain of Comment Moderation
In the Chain of Comment Moderation, there were links, or themes,
that affected the process of comment moderation. These themes were
formulated for the study to easily understand the theoretical importance of
the responses into answering the research questions, which was the
capability of the comment moderator to decide which comment should
remain or be removed in their comment sections. This is parallel to the
gatekeeping theory, emphasizing the moderator‘s role to decide what
information is vital to their platform.

41
Figure 1. The Chain of Comment Moderation
KIND OF KIND OF
STORY COMMENT
42
Each link to the Chain of Comment Moderation corresponds to a
theme that is significant in the process of comment moderation. It
consisted of four (4) themes, namely, a) comment moderation training, b)
comment selection, c) comment moderation strategy, and d) comment
moderation assessment.
The link of comment moderation training refers to the different
preparatory steps employed by news organizations to orient the
moderators for their possible tasks. These training procedures are based
on the preferences of the news organizations that use different comment
moderation strategies.
The second link, comment selection, discusses how moderators
choose the kind of comment they moderate in their Facebook platforms.
This link branches into two related factors, the kind of story that is most
moderated by the journalists and the kind of comment found in the
comment threads that they choose to moderate.
Comment moderation strategy is the third link of the Chain of
Comment Moderation. This underscores the different strategies of
moderation used by social media managers and online editors of news
organizations. A media outfit can use more than one comment moderation
strategy, as these differ on how they are used and the cause as to why
such strategy was employed.

43
The fourth and last link to the chain is the comment moderation
assessment. This link aimed to highlight the observations of the comment
moderators upon employing the different comment moderation strategies.
The responses were categorized into major observations of the comment
moderators on matters that affect the comment section of their news
organizations‘ Facebook platforms. The four links to the Chain of
Comment Moderation are further explained to identify the themes that
affect the process of comment moderation.
Comment moderation training
Table 2. Kinds of comment moderation training
COMMENT MODERATION FREQUENCY

TRAINING
Experience-based 1
Specialist-based 2
Guidelines-based 3
When the respondents were asked whether comment moderators in
their news organizations went through any specific training or if they had
any orientation on official comment moderation ethical standards,
participants had varying experiences which the researchers categorized
into three types.

44
Experience-based. This comment moderation training is based on
the experience of the comment moderator, simultaneous with the act of
comment moderation itself.
―Our training or orientation on comment moderation is more like
from experience.‖ [M1]
―You really get to learn [comment moderation] as you go along, so
there‘s really minimal training.‖ [M3]
Specialist-based. Comment moderators were oriented by hired social
media experts or specialists who may or may not be professionally
employed to train comment moderators or social media managers of a
news organization. As a respondent stated:
―There is at most, a year of training, and we hired a consultant for
the team of our social media specialists.‖ [M4]
―I put up a unit called audience development team, whose task is
to ensure audience acquisition and community engagement.‖ [M7]
Guidelines-based. Rules on how to moderate the comment sections
were set by the news organization to prepare and guide the comment
moderators of their possible tasks.

45
―Training, meron lang kaming rules na sinusundan not necessarily training, I
think kasi hindi siya dapat talaga tini-train parang meron lang mga rules and basis
ng mga dapat sundan when it comes to pagmomoderate ng comments.‖
(We only have rules to follow and not necessarily training. Training is not
really needed as long as there are rules or basis to follow when it comes to
moderating.) [M5]
Comment selection
When the respondents were asked about how they select which
comments to moderate or what standards or qualities they consider, the
respondents categorized the selection into two: the kind of story or section
they observed with the most comments, and the kind of comment they
choose to moderate.
Table 3. Kinds of stories with the most moderated comments
MOST MODERATED KIND OF

STORY
Politics
Entertainment
Religion
Kind of story. It was important for the comment moderators to be
aware of the topics with the most number of comments, as this would be
46
an important factor in analyzing the comment sections and setting a
specific moderation technique for the users.
―Dalawang bagay, it‘s either political issues or pwedeng
nonpolitical, yung mga viral na thing. Kahit anong nagviviral, it‘s light or
sad or tragic.‖
(Two things, it‘s either political or non-political issues, those that go
viral. Anything that becomes viral, whether it is light, sad, or tragic
stories.) [M4]
Politics was the unanimous response of all the respondents. Some of
them shared:
―Definitely the political ones, yun talaga yung pinaka-meaty na
comments section, kasi syempre people have a lot of differing opinions
on how the country should be ran.‖
(The political ones definitely have the most substantial comment
section because people have a lot of differing opinions on how the
country should be ran.) [M3]
―Most of the time anything na against sa admin pinakamadaming
comments and by saying against, kumbaga may mga selective na
inaaccept yung mga tao sa social media. Aware naman kayo kung sino
yung mas popular sa social media VS dun sa popular siya pero popular
siya dahil hate siya, ganoon. Pag nagpopost kami about that person,
grabe yung comments namin like lahat kahit na tiniest bit ng mistake
47
papansinin nila or kahit walang mistake, gagawa nalang sila. Sobrang
daming comments nun.‖
(Most of the time, anything that is against the administration has
the most comments since people in social media accept news
selectively. I‘m sure you‘re aware on who‘s popular in social media
versus who‘s popular because he or she is hated. When we post
something about that person, the commenters notice even the tiniest bit
of mistake in him or her. And even if there is no mistake committed,
users will simply make one and it garners a lot of comments.) [M6]
Second to politics was entertainment. According to one of the
participants, news stories on entertainment are also flocked by
commenters, especially on celebrities with huge fan following and also
involved with political issues.
―Sunod na is entertainment, siyempre parang pag-uusapan yung
mga favourite nilang celebrities.‖
(Next to politics is entertainment because people talk about their
favorite celebrities.) [M3]
When religious groups get involved with political issues, the written
articles easily obtained plenty of comments.
―Kapag tungkol sa religion, like yung Iglesia, nung nagprotest sila,
ang daming comments nun diba. Kapag CBCP nangingialam sa
gobyerno, may statement, dami rin. Tapos uungkatin na lahat.‖

48
(When the stories are about religion, say, the Iglesia ni Cristo, it
got a lot of comments. It also happens when the CBCP reacts on political
issues. When they release a statement, many people would air their
opinions.) [M2]
Table 4. Kinds of comments that are most moderated

MOST MODERATED KIND OF
COMMENT
Vulgar words and offensive remarks
Threats to journalist or others
Actual questions
Kind of comment. It was also necessary for these
moderators to identify the kinds of comments they should moderate
in their news organization‘s comment section. The respondents
claimed that the most moderated kinds of comments were vulgar
words, threats to journalists or other people, and actual questions
for the news organization.
Comment moderators strictly enforce policies when users
comment vulgar words and offensive remarks in their comment
sections. They use different strategies for these kinds of comments
that will be explained further later on.

49
―We discourage mga cuss words, mga mura mura. Kung
mapapansin nyo sa Facebook wala kayong masyadong makikita na mga
mura.‖
(We discourage cuss words, vulgar remarks. If you can notice,
Facebook rarely contains cuss and vulgar words.) [M4]
Nagdedelete ako kapag napaka below the belt na, mura nang
mura.
(I delete especially when it‘s below the belt, those who keep on
cursing.) [M5]
When users end up commenting threats that are directed to the
journalists or other persons involved, comment moderators also employ
their comment moderation strategies.
―‘Yung mga ―Sana mamatay ka,‖ ―Sana ma-rape ka,‖ yung mga
ganon. Minomoderate namin.
(Those people who say ―I hope you die,‖ ―I hope you get raped,‖
comments like that, we moderate them. [M5]
Lastly, actual questions or issues regarding the article or any points
of clarification are also moderated by the social media managers and
online editors of a news organization.

50
―Mostly if they‘re questions, questions about the article, gusto nila
mag-clarify. For example ina-accuse nila na mali ‗tong info na to,
siyempre we check on our writers, our editors, kung tama ba yung
accusation nila or whatever and we make the necessary reply.‖
(We reply mostly if there are questions about the article, if they
have something to clarify. For example, they accuse that information
from this article is false; we check on our writers and editors whether
their accusation is true and then we make the necessary reply.) [M3]
Comment moderation strategies
Table 5. Kinds of comment moderation strategies
COMMENT MODERATION
STRATEGIES
Default Facebook policies
Comment deletion
Manual moderation
Indirect moderation
Banning
Default Facebook policies. It was found that news organizations had
various strategies and policies in gatekeeping their online platforms,
specifically their Facebook pages. Most of these news media outfits
utilized Facebook‘s own comment moderation tool or its default Facebook
policies and mainly, its feature to automatically hide comments containing

51
expletives. Aside from this, respondents shared how they were able to add
a list of vulgar words to be automatically hidden by Facebook‘s algorithm.
―Facebook has an auto-hide feature if there are profanities. We
have a list of vulgar words that would enable the auto-hide.‖ [M3]
―Technically, Facebook automatically archives in the backend. We
have archives but it depends on the case. Sometimes we archive when
it‘s libelous because the response was good and it‘s a good example for
future employees.‖ [M3]
―Facebook has a tool to automate moderation for incoming
comments and it has an algorithm that automatically hides those in all
caps.‖ [M2]
―We do not remove comments on our Facebook page. We only
hide, and when we do, these are the grounds: cussing, bigotry, inciting
violent behavior.‖ [M4]
Comment deletion. Another strategy they employed was comment
deletion on comments that conveyed threats to the news organization,
bigotry, racism, cusses and the like. Some respondents even shared:
―If the content contains slurs and other offensive content, we just
erase. If the person(s) is a repeat offender, we ban. Nagdedelete ako

52
kapag napaka below the belt na, mura nang mura. Yung medyo
nagmumura na may argument, pwede pa eh.‖
(If the content contains slurs and other offensive content, we just
erase. I delete a comment when it‘s just full of profanities. I could tolerate
those who cuss, but has an argument in what he says.) [M5]
―Yes, we delete in extreme cases especially when you attack a
person. We also delete when there are racist comments, or anything that
is below the belt.‖ [M4]
Manual moderation. The comment sections of their Facebook pages
were also managed by manual moderation where the comment moderator
checks the comments one by one and replies if necessary. One reason for
doing this, according to one of the respondents, was that people have
their ways to spell words differently, so there was a possibility that curse
words evolved.
―We really pride ourselves in directly commenting with our readers,
making sure we engage with our public. So the only way to do that is to
be a human being and answer. You really can‘t moderate a comment
section automatically. You really have to understand where that
commenter is coming from and no machine could really do that since the
commenters are Filipinos. If ever there is an existing comment
moderation tool, it would be in English.‖ [M3]

53
―Basta merong ways yung iba to spell differently yung ano so
nage-evolve. Manually na kapag creative na yung mga profanities nila.
At the same time, merong mga sensitive issues na binabantayan namin.
For example may isang topic na kami na pinost so ayun kelangan
naming bantayan yon. May instances na sasabihin ―Bakit hindi nyo
nilalabas tong mga issues na to‖ so in cases like that, ―I hope you could
read these..‖ kasi may mga pinost na kami. Minsan kasi yung mga
readers talagang very judgmental attitude.‖
(People have their ways to spell [words] differently, so cusses
evolve. We moderate manually when users comment profanities
creatively. At the same time, there are some sensitive issues that we‘re
attentive about. There are instances when users say ‗Why didn‘t you
release any news about this issue?‘ So in cases like that, we reply ‗We
hope you could read these…‖ and give them links because we already
posted something about it. Sometimes, readers can be very judgmental.)
[M4]
―Mostly if they‘re questions, questions about the article, gusto nila
mag-clarify. For example ina-accuse nila na mali ‗tong info na to,
siyempre we check on our writers, our editors, kung tama ba yung
accusation nila or whatever and we make the necessary reply. Or if they
accuse the company of doing something or they spread lies about us,
siyempre we have to respond to that.‖
(We reply mostly if there are questions about the article, if they
have something to clarify. For example, they accuse that information

54
from this article is false; we check on our writers and editors whether
their accusation is true and then we make the necessary reply. Or if they
accuse the company of doing something or they spread lies about us, we
really have to respond to that.) [M3]
Indirect moderation. In contrast to this, a strategy where the news
organizations do not directly reply, but created an avenue where they
could interact with their audience was also practiced. An example from a
respondent was creating a campaign against hate speech on their
comment section. Another respondent shared that their news organization
hosts a poll on various issues to engage the commenters.
―Meron kaming rulebook, ang gist is number one rule namin is you
cannot reply at all. Like at all. Kami, hindi kami nagrereply at all meron
lang mga circumstances. Ayun nga, magrerespond lang kami let‘s say
mali yung featured image ng isang article or merong ‗he‘ na nagiging
‗she‘ yung mga ganoon or yung mga name correction inaayos namin.‖
(We have a rulebook, and the number one rule says that you
cannot reply at all. We don‘t directly reply but we respond in a way by
correcting any errors they have pointed out in the article.) [M5]
―We have a campaign called #NoPlaceForHate. It was started on
September 2016 and we aimed to try as much as possible to make our
comment sections as hate speech-free as possible.‖ [M3]

55
―Ang ginagawa namin is gumagawa kami ng mga specific
campaigns or projects para dun namin makuha so let‘s say gagawa kami
ng poll okay, so dun sa poll na yon pwede kang magvote pero pwede ka
ring magcomment dun sa post right, so yun yung ginagawa namin.‖
(What we do is that we create specific campaigns or projects and
that‘s where we get our engagement and comments. For example, we
create a poll where people can vote on what they think about the subject
and at the same time, they could also comment on the post.) [M6]
Banning. The last comment moderation strategy was banning repeat
offenders of the news organization‘s community guidelines. Another
condition as said by one respondent was that if a user threatened their
security.
―If the person(s) is a repeat offender, we ban. The ban is
permanent if they repeatedly put out curse words in the comment section
and not do anything else.‖ [M1]
―We do not often ban but I banned someone for threatening our
security.‖ [M4]
Comment moderation strategies: strengths
Comment moderation strategies posed different advantages that
strengthened the respondents‘ case on improving and developing their

56
comment moderation strategies. The different news organizations had
differing opinions on the strengths of comment moderation that influences
their decision on using specific moderation techniques.
The interaction between the journalists and the users created a faster
two-way communication that acted as a feedback system in the digital
platform.
―Our strengths compared to other news agency, sumasagot kami.
Yung may paninindigan kami kasi we defend our writers and we defend
our articles. We really stand by our research and our facts so parang
sayang lang naman yung paglabas ng article kung hindi naming ide-
defend.‖
(Our strengths compared to other news agencies are that we reply
on the comment sections. We have this conviction to defend our writers
and we defend our articles. We really stand by our research and facts
because releasing these articles would be such a waste if we do not
defend them.) [M3]
―It has democratized the system of commenting and participation
of audience. Yun yung isang malaking bagay. Kumbaga dati editors can
just filter the reactions. Well una limited yung space. They cannot
accommodate 10, 20 letters to the editors. Pagdating sa web and social
media, nagdemocratize na. May mga abuses and excesses kaya nga
57
dapat may role yung journalists to moderate. Otherwise, minsan walang
sense of responsibility yung iba sa pagcomment.‖
(It has democratized the system of commenting and participation
of audience. That is one big reason why it‘s important. Before, editors
could easily filter the reactions because of newspaper‘s limitation in
space. They cannot accommodate 10 or 20 letters to the editors [in the
newspapers]. Now when it comes to the web and social media, it
became democratized. However, there are abuses and excesses that‘s
why there is the journalist‘s role to moderate. Otherwise, people would
have no sense of responsibility when it comes to commenting.) [M4]
The respondents also acknowledged how Facebook moderation
tools facilitated easier means of gatekeeping and its capacity to equip
pages with features that can guide social media handlers in tracking their
progresses. As one of the respondents mentioned,
―Facebook has a tool to automate moderation for incoming
comments and it has an algorithm that automatically hides those in all
caps.‖ [M2]
―Facebook‘s strength is that it does the work on its own, so less job
for us.‖ [M5]

58
Comment moderation strategies: weaknesses
Nevertheless, several lapses were noticed in their strategies. These
were caused by varying reasons that, reassuringly, were not permanent.
―We intervene if it involves the brand and we need to clarify
policies and what is the truth.‖ [M4]
The respondents enumerated several weaknesses in their comment
moderation policies. Several respondents explained how comment
moderation tended to be more retroactive, and only acts on different
issues after a certain comment was made.
―Visibility caused by high engagement could be good for the brand,
but at the same time could be a danger. If you are visible, there would be
more attacks, hence the importance of moderators and social media
specialists to always be on guard.‖ [M4]
―Well it‘s not proactive kasi hindi ka talaga ganun nag-eengage sa
comments bago yon.‖
(It‘s not proactive because we‘re not really able to engage with
them [users] beforehand.) [M4]
The lack of manpower was also a prominent issue among the
respondents, who all agreed that the limited number of comment

59
moderators in their news organizations restricted the amount of
responsibility they can manage. As one of the respondents put it:
―There are only so many people who can handle Facebook
comments thread. We come up with articles every few minutes, there are
breaking news, then chances are those will be flooded with trolls. In that
sense, time management can be our weakness because we‘re
understaffed. Technically if we weren‘t getting trolled, we‘re not really
understaffed. It‘s just an unusual time in our history.‖ [M3]
―I‘m sure you know that there are so many trolls in the internet now
and it‘s been particularly difficult because our little team can only do so
much. Facebook can auto-hide cusses and our own list of other
profanities, but for the most part, there are a lot of malicious speech
which are not necessarily curse words. You can be creative in the way
you insult someone, so in that case we moderate manually. And we can
only do so much per day. And that leads us to only addressing the top
comments since it‘s the most visible on the comment section.‖ [M3]
Comment moderation strategies were also affected by rapid changes
in the socio-political atmosphere on the Internet, causing dichotomized
audiences that required differing strategies in moderating techniques.
―Masyadong polarized ang Philippines sa ngayon. So pag
nakealam ka sa conversations nila minsan, you‘ll be branded as Dilawan
na or like this. Marami ngayong tao na may tunnel vision na ganun na

60
sila, ganun ka. Either youre black or white. Ganun yung thinking ng mga
maraming tao.‖
(The Philippines is polarized at the moment. That‘s why when you
intervene in people‘s conversations in the comment sections, you‘ll be
branded as Dilawan or whatever. Many people nowadays have a tunnel
vision, branding you as this or that. Either you‘re black or white. That‘s
how most people think nowadays.) [M4]
Comment moderation assessment
Table 6. Major assessments of comment moderators

post-comment moderation
COMMENT MODERATION
ASSESSMENT
User response
Increase in engagement
Trolling
Impact on freedom of speech
The respondents were also asked if they have observed any effect of
comment moderation on the quality of comments in their organization‘s
Facebook page, and whether comment moderation increased the user
involvement in the comment sections. The answers bottomed down to two
differing assessments regarding user engagement after comment
moderation.
61
―Conventional wisdom says comment moderation does [increase
user engagement].‖ [M7]
―Of course, although we‘re the only ones who see it. That‘s the
problem, regardless of the kind of comment, the engagement does
increase. Facebook has a ticker that shows the article‘s reach, how
many people have read it, clicked the article, etc. It‘s an extensive
feature, which is why the action should always start with the people
themselves.‖ [M5]
―The best feeling [as a comment moderator] is when users delete
their comments, and we take it that means they‘re backing down.‖ [M3]
While all comment moderation strategies aid in higher user
engagement, the feedback they receive after said gatekeeping was either:
Positive, or when the users replied respectfully.
―Some will thank us after we respond or others will back out to
avoid humiliation.‖ [M3]
―There‘s this woman na nagreact ―Omg madedemanda ka [news
organization] for stealing the videos of Discovery Channel.‖ Nagreply ako
sa comment niya, ―thanks for the prompt. The posting of this video was
covered by an agreement or a partnership with Discovery Channel

62
Southeast Asia,‖ she replied ―Thanks for the clarification. I was just
concerned.‖‖
(There‘s this woman who reacted claiming we could be sued for
stealing the videos of Discovery Channel, and I thanked her for the
prompt. The video, however, was covered by an agreement with
Discovery Channel Southeast Asia, and she thanked me for the
clarification.) [M4]
Negative, or when the users replied with agitation.
―Whether the reactions contain angry faces (or emoticons), it all
adds up to our engagements.‖ [M4]
―Some people really just want to spread bad messages and
whatever response or clarification we give, they will just continue bashing
or arguing with us for being ‗defensive.‘ If the user really has malice
intended, then the tone will always be mocking.‖ [M3]
An unexpected observation among many of the respondents was the
impact brought by the visibility of trolls in the comment sections of their
respective Facebook pages. It was found out that their presence
definitively contributed to the increase in engagement of their Facebook
pages. As one of the respondents shared:
―Actually well kung mag sstick ka ng business-wise, good siya for
the page kasi tumataas yung engagement. I mean yun lang naman, ako
63
I‘m not authorized to speak in behalf of everyone with a digital platform
pero yun lang kasi yun e, tataas yung engagement mo. Ang magiging
question lang after that is positive ba or negative yung engagement, may
naitulong ba sayo yung engagement.‖
(Business-wise, trolls are good for the page because the
engagement increases. I‘m not authorized to speak in behalf of everyone
with a digital platform, but that‘s just it, they heighten your engagement.
The question at hand is whether the engagement you had was positive,
or if it helped at all.) [M6]
Other respondents claimed that these trolls had patterned arguments
in terms of what they post since the comments were categorically same in
structure or just repeated, copied, and reused.
―While you can‘t 100% say na paid troll yan, you see a pattern.
Yung paulit ulit or pare-pareho yung sinasabi nila, halatang copy paste
mga sinasabi nila.‖
(While you can‘t say 100% that a troll was paid, you see a pattern.
When the comments are same in structure or just repeated verbatim, it‘s
evident that what they said are just copied and reused.) [M4]
The trolls‘ presence in the comment sections affected comment
moderation inasmuch as it was said to simply provoke other users to
comment. Their comments were meant to spread malice. In the opinion of
some respondents:
64
―Comments that are meant to spread malice are hateful. When you
read it, it‘s clearly meant to derail the conversation, or to put a certain
commenter or the news outlet itself of maybe those involved, to put that
entity in a bad light. The troll does not contribute to the discussion, but
tries instead to turn it into something that is potentially or outright harmful
for whatever [or whoever] their target is.‖ [M4]
―I know this troll na ang bayad sa kanya is per reply so pag may
pumatol sa akin, bayad ako, pag walang pumatol sa akin, I don‘t get
paid. Mas nakaka-trigger dapat. Sila yung dapat mas pinag-uusapan.‖
(I personally know someone who gets paid every time someone
replies to his comment. To them, it‘s important that the comment triggers
someone. Somehow, they [trolls] could shape public opinion.) [M2]
Comment moderation and press freedom
In legality, although social media managers agreed that freedom of
expression is a valuable right and news organizations are pleased to offer
a space where their readers can express themselves, they are not limiting
their readers‘ freedom by deleting or blocking comments because freedom
does not entail the entitlement to abuse this right. One of the respondents
answered:
65
―If you delete something, according to our policy, it‘s because
you‘re trolling or being malicious. There is always a fine line between
freedom of speech and just being a mean, horrible person. With freedom
of speech, you draw the line when it no longer becomes a two-sided
conversation and it becomes more of something that is meant to harm
the other person, so we take good care to only delete those who are
really just out to malign us or someone else. There‘s a difference
between freedom of speech and slander.‖ [M3]
The respondents unanimously agreed that comment moderation
does not impede a user‘s freedom of speech, and the comment
moderation strategies are in place for a certain reason.
―Like all freedoms, it must not be abused. And like all freedoms,
you must face the consequences of your actions. When you try to ruin
someone‘s reputation using our comment sections, we can remove that
comment since it‘s technically our property. Having freedom does not
mean doing anything you want to do.‖ [M1]
―The conversation should be healthy as much as possible. I don‘t
think that can be called censorship. It has to be a civilized
discourse.‖[M4]
66
Chapter 5.0
Discussion
Although Facebook has been available to the public since 2006, its
usage as a platform for journalism is relatively new (Brügger, 2015).
Studies on the impact of the social networking site for online news were
limited and were mostly focused on it being a tool to reach more
audiences (Al-Rawi, 2017). When it comes to comment sections, in
particular, a research underscored its relevance as an avenue to voice
opinions (Berg & Strandberg, 2013).
The respondents in the study have been chosen purposively for their
status as leading online news organizations for their wide reach to large
number of audiences and their prominence in the industry, among others.
However, an important factor for the respondents‘ inclusion to the
research was their utilization of the comment threads to foster interaction
and practice their gatekeeping role in society through comment
moderation.
News organizations in the Philippines used their online presence
through Facebook by utilizing comment sections as a means to identify
with the people, and moderating these comments have created a sphere
67
where discourse is elevated as much as possible by directly or indirectly
informing the online audience of an article‘s importance. This, together
with the timely duty of comment moderations to eliminate ‗users‘ who take
advantage of the comment sections to promote their agenda or disrupt the
discussion with nonsensical responses, ergo, trolling was important for the
researchers to see.
The study aimed to (a) identify the preliminary steps taken by news
organizations to select the strategies used in responding to comments on
their Facebook posts, (b) determine the kinds of comments these
journalists choose to moderate, (c) determine the comment moderation
strategies employed by news organizations on Facebook and its
corresponding benefits and challenges and (d) determine the observations
of comment moderators on the comment sections after employing
comment moderation strategies.
Through an analysis of the data collected from seven Filipino
journalists, four major themes emerged, namely; comment moderation
training, comment selection, comment moderation strategies and
comment moderation assessment. These were later on translated by the
researchers as the Chain of Comment Moderation.
The technicalities of comment moderation were roughly discussed by
the respondents to answer an integral part of the study, but the interviews
68
conducted showed that different kinds of training were framed by news
organizations to prepare the journalists for the job of gatekeeping the
comment sections.
The respondents had varying experiences and the system of training
was categorized into three types by the researchers. Experience-based
training was prominent among the respondents‘ narrations, who claimed
that their comment moderators were oriented of the task through practical
contact with and observation of the social media environment only,
immediately going through the comment moderation process and learning
its procedures as they progressed.
Specialists and social media experts were hired to prepare the news
organization‘s social media handlers as another means of training them.
Specialist-based meant understanding how the comment moderation
strategies and community management worked coming from someone
who was skilled in the subject of social media. These ‗specialists‘ could be
people coming from the organization itself or from a field specifically
devoted to such practice.
Guidelines, or manuals, were also used by some news media outfits
to prepare comment moderators for their tasks. This guidelines-based
training contained rules and instructions formulated by the news

69
organizations on how to moderate the comments of the users and how to
engage with audiences under some conditions.
These various types of training were specifically important to monitor
the sections with the most number of comments or reactions from users.
Whether the news organization employed experience-based, specialist-
based or guidelines-based, a better tailored stance on the process of
comment moderation made it easier for the social media handler to
observe and anticipate the traffic of commenters whenever an article is
released by a news organization. This may be linked to Kovach and
Rosenstiel‘s (2001) theory of interlocking public in their book The
Elements of Journalism where it assumes that people have something
they are interested about and the topics with most interested audiences
are deemed to be significant issues.
Politics was unanimously declared as the top section with most
comments, hence making it a significant issue for the audiences, by every
respondent from various news organizations that the researchers were
able to interview. One respondent said that the political stories have the
―meatiest comment section because people have a lot of different opinions
on how the country should be ran.‖ This is comparable to Almgren and
Olsson (2015) as well as Cho and Kwon‘s (2017) finding in their studies
70
which suggested that online publics were more engaged in reading and
commenting on politics among others.
The next section with prominent presence of commenters was
entertainment because people like to talk about their favorite celebrities,
similar to Almgren and Olsson‘s (2015) finding in their study. Consequent
to that was news on religion, specifically when religious groups get
involved with political issues. The last prominent section was viral news or
stories that trend across various social media platforms, may it be light,
sad or tragic.
The interviewees were able to clearly identify the comment
moderation strategies that they employ on their news organization‘s
Facebook pages. Indeed, media try to improve the quality of comments by
using a strict comment management strategy (Bakker & Hille, 2014), but
most of these news media outfits simply took advantage of Facebook‘s
platform, its own comment moderation tool and other existing Facebook
policies on comment moderation. This is comparable to Al-Rawi‘s (2017)
which stated news organizations enhanced their social media activity
especially on Facebook to maintain and possibly increase its audience
engagements.
The social networking site integrated a system that automatically
hides comments containing expletives Facebook already programmed in

71
their comment moderation tool for page-owners. This means that aside
from the conceived strategies of news organizations for their Facebook
pages, the online platform has already provided initial measures to
maintain a forum that encourages respect from users who want to
participate. The respondents also mentioned how they were able to add a
list of vulgar words that Facebook concealed automatically so other online
users would not be able to see it.
Comment deletion, according to the data gathered from the
interviews, was also a prominent moderation strategy employed by online
news organizations. Comments conveying threats to the news
organization and other people, racist remarks, and other offensive phrases
were manually deleted by news organization to promote a healthy
environment for their readers. Considering Facebook‘s auto-hide feature,
some offensive comments bypassed the said algorithm by being ‗creative‘
with their responses – using numbers as letters, indirect insults, and other
tactics were observed by comment moderators, thus the need to
personally take down such comments by deleting them from the comment
sections. This is akin to Loke‘s (2012) study, many journalists prefer
moderation and deleting of comments in threads to ensure that readers
and other users are comfortable on participating in the discussions.

72
Based on the implementation of Web 2.0 technologies in online
newspapers, an increase in user-generated content such as comments
were incorporated in professionally generated journalistic content, urging
newsrooms to manage the comment section (Weber, 2013). This led news
organizations to conduct manual comment moderation, which meant
checking the comments one by one and replying to some if necessary.
One of the respondents claimed that individually checking the comment
threads is necessary since ―people have their ways to spell [words]
differently, so cusses evolve‖ as mentioned earlier. It also helped in
looking for users who had questions about an article or if they had
clarifications.
―We take pride in our conviction, and we defend our writers and
we defend our articles. We really stand by our research and our facts
so I think it would be a discouraging to release an article if we
wouldn‘t be defending it.‖ [M3]
Comment moderation may also be in a form of indirect replies, as
explained by the respondents. It worked by creating other avenues using
Facebook‘s other features where online users can interact with the news
organization. Such avenues, as explained by one of the respondents,
include creating a campaign hoping to limit hate speech in their comment
section (comment moderation strategy), or hosting polls on various issues

73
to initiate conversation with their audiences (common engagement
strategy). These strategies may not be as visible as other techniques but
they lead to the expected effect of increasing the Facebook engagement
nonetheless. They illustrate that an online news website‘s design features,
like that of Facebook‘s poll, are important boundary conditions of
deliberation and may affect the user‘s discourse in the comment sections
at a basic level (Wright & Street, 2007 as cited in Weber 2013). They
enable user participation and help increase the engagement in the news
organization‘s Facebook page.
The last comment moderation strategy enumerated by the
respondents was banning accounts of repeat offenders from the news
organization‘s Facebook page. These users were usually those who
consistently violated community guidelines set either by the news
organization or Facebook itself. Some respondents recalled banning users
after consistently posting profanities in the comment section or were
already threatening the security of the news organization‘s writers. They
clarified that procedures were in place should these threats materialize,
but the initial action they must take would be to put down such comments
and ban the user from accessing their page. Banning called for issues on
yielding free speech and censorship concerns for users, but respondents
said it did not impede the freedom of speech because it‘s their page.
74
Users have to comply with their rules and freedom does not mean there is
an absence of limitation. This is parallel with Diakopoulos & Naaman‘s
(2011) finding that journalists‘ presence in the comment sections is
necessary since comments are seen as a form of content.
These comment moderation strategies had a visible effect on either
having a positive or negative response from the users, regardless if it were
directed to the news organization or to improving the quality of discussions
in the comment sections. Parallel to the study of Bakker and Hille (2014),
the rules and guidelines users have to follow side by side with the
comment moderation done by journalists influence the quantity and quality
of comments. There were instances where the commenters thanked the
news organization for correcting them in what they commented.
There were also times where the commenter suggested factual
corrections on details of an article as shared by one of the respondents.
However, there were also instances where the commenters question why
their comment was removed. Nonetheless, either positive or negative
comments as a reaction from the comment moderation increased the
engagement in the news organizations‘ Facebook pages.
An unexpected result from the researcher‘s data-gathering arose and
it was the presence of trolls in the comment sections and their effect on
the number of engagement in news organizations‘ Facebook pages. Their

75
visibility and their main goal which was to provoke other users also
affected the quality of discussions in the comment section with their
patterned arguments.
Comment moderation posed different advantages that strengthened
the respondents‘ case on improving and developing their comment
moderation strategies. The interaction between the journalists and the
users created a faster two-way communication that acted as a feedback
system in the digital platform. According to Carey and Meyer (2013),
healthier or more productive discourse was also noticed by the
respondents after employing different comment moderation strategies.
The respondents also acknowledged how Facebook moderation tools
facilitated easier means of gatekeeping and its capacity to equip pages
with features that can guide social media handlers in tracking their
progresses. Online comments appear immediately, unlike the letters to the
editor, and are directly attached to the original story (Bergström &
Wadbring, 2015). As one of the respondents mentioned,
―It has democratized the system of commenting and
participation of audience. That is one big reason why it‘s important.
Before, editors could easily filter the reactions because of
newspaper‘s limitation in space. They cannot accommodate 10 or 20
letters to the editors [in the newspapers]. Now when it comes to the
76
web and social media, it became democratized. However, there are
abuses and excesses that‘s why there is the journalist‘s role to
moderate. Otherwise, people would have no sense of responsibility
when it comes to commenting.‖ [M4]
The respondents also enumerated several lapses in their comment
moderation strategies. Several respondents explained how comment
moderation tended to be more retroactive, and only acts on different
issues after a certain comment was made. The lack of manpower was
also a prominent issue among the respondents, who all agreed that the
limited number of comment moderators in their news organizations
restricted the amount of responsibility they can manage. According to a
respondent,
―There are only so many people who can handle Facebook
comments thread. We come up with articles every few minutes, there
is breaking news, and then chances are those will be flooded with
trolls. In that sense, time management can be our weakness because
we‘re understaffed. Technically if we weren‘t getting trolled, we‘re not
really understaffed. It‘s just an unusual time in our history.‖ Comment
moderation strategies were also affected by rapid changes in the
socio-political atmosphere on the Internet, causing dichotomized

77
audiences that required differing strategies in moderating
techniques.‖ [M3]
The change in the Internet‘s socio-political atmosphere by creating a
dichotomized audience was also noted by the respondents as this made it
more difficult to moderate. Intervening in this environment may mean
being branded with different labels. As proposed by Carey and Meyer
(2013), journalists worry about derogatory comments destroying their
company‘s brand. However, the incivility in the comment section even
reaches to the point where commenters threaten writers‘ lives, hence the
need for an appropriate action by the news organization. This put more
impact to the importance of gatekeeping given that the comment section is
not only an avenue for public forums now, but also a place to incite
violence.
Limitations. Several factors limit the expansion of the research and
discussing other possible branches related to online journalism and
comment moderation. Seven journalists who act as social media handlers
or Facebook managers of different online news organizations were
supposed to be interviewed personally for the data gathering process of
the study but one of the respondents refused to be interviewed in person
and chose to answer the questions through email.

78
The lack of literature regarding actual comment moderation policies
can be attributed to the fact that the said concept is still gradually
developing and news organizations (especially in the Philippines) have yet
to identify concrete strategies to utilize this new form of gatekeeping.

79
Chapter 6.0
Conclusion
The Chain of Comment Moderation was developed by the
researchers to systematically explain the comment moderation process of
online news organization's Facebook pages. The researchers initially
aimed to explore into this concept and identify the strategies employed by
different news organizations in handling their comment sections. Different
modes of comment moderation training for social media handlers, either
experience-based, specialist-based, or guidelines-based, were all
conceived by the researchers from data provided by seven online
journalists-respondents with shared encounters on comment moderation.
Identifying the most frequent stories to moderate and kinds of
comments to apply such moderation was also integral in analysing the
comment moderation procedures of news organizations. The research
concluded that political news projects the most number of comments,
considering number of people who engage in the discourse on society and
governance. Vulgar words, threats, and actual questions were the kinds of
comments that were moderated by the news organizations.

80
Comment moderation training comprised the third link to the Chain of
Comment Moderation, which were the strategies used by the social media
handlers as a means of gatekeeping in their online domains. The use of
default Facebook policies, manual moderation through replying, comment
deletion, banning, and indirect comment moderation (creation of polls,
campaigns, etc.) were prominent techniques used by the respondents'
online news outfits. Higher user engagements were the results of the
various comment moderation strategies; although these assessments
were further divided by positive and negative responses after the
comment moderation took place.
The interviewed social media managers and online editors all
established that freedom of expression is a valuable right and news
organizations are pleased to offer a space where their readers can
express themselves, and they believe that they are not limiting their
readers‘ freedom by deleting or blocking comments because freedom
does not entail the entitlement to abuse this right.
The study concludes that comment moderation does increase user
engagement. However, this does not simply equate to producing a healthy
discourse, which is why online journalists perform a vital role as
gatekeepers.
81
Also, comment moderation is still a growing concept, and its
development should not be impeded. Facebook has continued to aid
online news organizations with their moderating policies through its auto-
hide feature, a tool prominently used by most online news organizations
as part of their strategy.
Recommendations. This study recommends that future research will
be conducted on the said concept that will involve the audiences and
online users as part of further quantitative explorations. Comment
organization, sorting, and filtering tools based on content analysis could
be a promising avenue for structuring the commenting experience and get
the most individualized value out of comments.
General guidelines for all news organizations on how to deal with
comment sections should be materialized to help in the task of moderating
Facebook comments. The proposed guidelines should be extensive and
open to innovation so as not to prevent in elevating intellectual discourse.
Also, studying further on the issue of comment moderation and its
fine line on censorship can be made, to analyse what these comment
moderation strategies does on the perception of readers on news
organizations.
The research concludes that comment moderation should be fully
integrated into online journalism studies because the growing digital

82
sphere is now a major forum for various societal issues. Facebook has
given news organizations the platform, and it is the news organizations'
role to fully embrace its potential.

83
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APPENDICES
A. Interview questions
Interview Guide
1. Does a comment moderator in your organization undergo any
specific training or orientation on official comment moderation
ethical standards tailored for the organization? In your case, what
training did you have to undertake to prepare you for the task?
2. What topics usually get the most number of comments in your
organization‘s Facebook page? (Politics, societal issues, religion,
sports, opinion, etc.)
3. Does your news organization have an existing policy or guideline
on comment moderation? What are the procedures done for
tracking, storing, and/or archiving comments that you engage with
through comment moderation?
4. What are the strategies enforced by your news organization in
gatekeeping the Facebook comments of its page? Do you remove
comments altogether or simply reply to their comments?
5. (If they reply to comments) How do you select which comments to
respond to? What standards or qualities do you consider?
(Offensive content, hate speech, bad language, etc.)
6. Have you observed any effect of comment moderation on the
quality of comments in your organization‘s FB page?
7. Does comment moderation increase the user involvement in the
comment sections?
8. In what ways do the users respond to the journalists‘ engagement
in the comment section (like, share, comment)?
9. What are the strengths and weaknesses of moderation comments
from your readers?
10. Do you think moderating the comment section limits the public‘s
freedom of speech?
90
B. Personal data sheet (Robotfoto)
Name: ____________________________________
Date of birth: ____________________________________
Age: ____________________________________
Civil status: ____________________________________
Religion: ____________________________________
Nationality: ____________________________________
Educational attainment: ____________________________________
School: ____________________________________
Program: ____________________________________
Previous occupation: ____________________________________
Contact number: ____________________________________
How long have you been a journalist?

_____________________________
What publication do you work for?
________________________________
What is your position in your company or publication?
_________________
By signing below, I certify all information is true and correct to the best of
my knowledge.
Signature: ___________________
91
C. Consent and confidentiality form
The rise of digital gatekeeping: Towards high user involvement

through Facebook comments
by Kristelyn B. Aguilar, Calvin Kaiser V. Teodoro
Greetings. We are graduating journalism students from UST who are

conducting a thesis / research project titled The rise of digital
gatekeeping: Towards high user involvement through Facebook
comments.
1. Introduction. Our research aims to determine the comment moderation

strategies used by news organizations in the Philippines and whether
these comment moderation strategies stimulate a higher user involvement
in the comment section of their news articles. Your participation will be
maximized through in-depth interviews.
2. Procedures. Our respondents are journalists who moderate the
comment section of their news organizations‘ Facebook page or is
involved in the handling of their news organization‘s social media platform.
These journalists are employed in news organizations mainly situated in
the National Capital Region (NCR), and are categorically chosen as they
are part of mainstream news organizations that moderate the comment
sections of their Facebook pages. The interview will be done face-to-face
with an interview guide. A personal data sheet will be answered by the
respondents for documentation purposes.
3. Benefits. With the growing interest in the interactivity of news, the
quality of the discussion anchored around online news stories is of
paramount importance to news organizations that aims to stimulate public
discourse, debate, and discussion while maintaining a credible community
profile. By identifying the strategies employed by journalists, the patterns
that will be stemming from comment moderation‘s intentional or even
unintentional effects may be observed and these may help structure a
better strategy that can increase high user involvement.
4. Risks. Rest assured that you will not be subjected to any risks for
answering the interview questions.
92
5. Exclusion from participation. Journalists from news organizations who

do not moderate the comment sections of their Facebook page are
ineligible to take part in the study.
6. Confidentiality. Your personal information regarding the interviewees
will be withheld for confidentiality. We will inform you the general scope of
the interview ahead of time and recording devices will be used with
permission from each interviewee.
7. Voluntary Participation. We will be asking you to fill out a profile sheet to
document necessary information and for the possibility of further inquiry
regarding the interview. We will also hand out consent forms that will be
signed by you to ensure full cooperation and voluntary participation in our
study. You may refuse or withdraw your participation at any point and will
not be forced or penalized for your action.
8. Costs and compensation. No interviewees will be given any
compensation, monetary or otherwise, for their participation in our study.
9. Permission and further information. This research project / thesis and its
research instruments have been approved by the Institutional Review
Board (IRB) of the AB Journalism program of the University of Santo
Tomas. Inquiries and complaints regarding the study will be respectfully
addressed and can be directed to the IRB of the UST AB Journalism
program at ustjournalism@gmail.com.
10. For more questions surrounding this research project, please email
our Thesis Writing Coordinator Ms. Marishelle R. Medina (UST AB
Journalism Institutional Review Board) at ustjournalism@gmail.com. If the
study team learns of important new information that might affect your
desire to remain in the study as a participant, you will be informed at once.
Participant:
I have read, or had read to me, this consent form. I have had the
opportunity to ask questions and all my questions have been answered to
my satisfaction. I freely and voluntarily agree to be part of this research
project / thesis, though without prejudice to my legal and ethical rights. I
understand I may withdraw from the study at any time. I have received a
copy of this consent form.
93
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
KRISTELYN B. AGUILAR is a graduating Journalism student from the

University of Santo Tomas. She is an aspiring TV broadcaster and hopes
to work in mainstream news networks in the near future.
CALVIN KAISER V. TEODORO is a graduating Journalism student from

the University of Santo Tomas. He plans to take up a Master‘s Degree in
Communication after finishing his undergraduate studies.
April 2018

On Digital Gatekeeping: A Study On Comment Moderation Through Facebook Comments

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On Digital Gatekeeping: A Study On Comment Moderation Through Facebook Comments

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University of Santo Tomas

Faculty of Arts and Letters

Undergraduate Thesis AB in Journalism

On digital gatekeeping: A study on comment

Kristelyn Bondoc Aguilar and Calvin Kaiser Valencia Teodoro

UST was acknowledged a Center of Development in journalism by the Commission on

Facebook has become an important platform for reading and

commenting instantly on news. Its comment section became a forum where

comment section. This digital gatekeeping strategy or now known as

comment moderation is a means that allow news organizations to either reply

on comments that they deem worthy of a response of any kind or delete it

because of its possible harm to the brand and other users.

This research aimed to determine the comment moderation strategies

used by news organizations in the Philippines. The comment moderation

strategies were identified by interviewing social media managers and online

news editors of the country‘s mainstream news organizations.

After analysing data gathered from the respondents, the Chain of

Comment Moderation was developed to systematically explain the process of

comment moderation as shared by the online journalists. It was found that

found to have increasingly become places for communities to discuss and

address common issues spurred by news articles. The research was an

attempt to examine whether comment moderation helped in user engagement

and managing comment quality.

Keywords: comment moderation, Facebook, gatekeeping, online journalism

This thesis titled

On digital gatekeeping: A study on

prepared and submitted by

Kristelyn B. Aguilar and Calvin Kaiser V. Teodoro

MS. JANNIS T. MONTAÑEZ

Approved by the Research Tribunal on Oral Examination with a grade of 1.50

MR. FELIPE F. SALVOSA II MS. MARISHELLE R. MEDINA

MR. FELIPE F. SALVOSA II, M.A.

ASST. PROF. JOSE ARSENIO J. SALANDANAN, M.S.

PROF. MICHAEL ANTHONY C. VASCO, Ph.D.

This is to certify that the thesis titled ON DIGITAL GATEKEEPING: A

Mr. Felipe F. Salvosa II

Date: April 30, 2018

Calvin Kaiser V. Teodoro

About the Authors

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Commenting has been a revolutionary means for the public to

respond to news produced by different media organizations (Weber, 2013;

Carey & Meyer, 2015).

Since the internet has made comments instant, feedback

immediate, and discussion archiving easier, it turned the comment section

into a forum for public criticism, personal indignation, and one‘s

frustrations (Carey & Meyer, 2015; Krämer & Rösner, 2016).

Reader comments are especially interesting in the perspective of

digital democracy, and how these internet-based interaction support a

deliberative public sphere of rational communication, public opinion

formation, or otherwise (Weber, 2013).

When news organizations allow comment threads on their stories,

or when they rebrand their columns as blogs, they easily acquire

comments from online users, regardless of whether the journalists at

Traditional news organizations (newspaper, television, radio) have

been seeking ways to establish a sustainable online presence and expand

the news experience of their readers by incorporating ―interactive

mechanisms‖ and enabling comment sections of their online platforms

(Domingo, Heinonen, Paulussen, Quandt, Reich, Singer & Vujnovic, 2008;

Indeed, on the array of website features, commenting on the news

offered participation opportunity in the contemporary news use (Domingo

However, with the prevalence of internet use meant the prevalence

of impoliteness – using expletives and having tones unbecoming of a