Millised inimesed avaldavad kommentaariumis arvamust ja miks
Date
2007
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
Description
The goal of this Bachelor´s thesis was to examine public commentary rooms and people
who write comments.
Author tried to find answers to following research questions:
1) Who are the people that post comments? (Are there any gender differences? How
old are the people who post comments? In which educational level are they? How
much is internet used and how much in working time? Do people prefer to remain
anonymous? If they do then why?)
2) Why do people express their opinion in commentary room? (How is the channel
being chosen? What are the reasons for writing comments? Why is the
atmosphere in commentary room mostly negative? Do people who write
comments find it negative?)
In this study two methods were being used:
1) author wrote provocative article, which was published in Delfi. In the end of the article
author asked three questions: Why are comments mostly negative? Why is internet a
good place to express ones opinion? Why people want to stay anonymous? Article gained
227 comments and many answers to the questions asked.
2) second questionnaire „Analyze your commenting habits“ was on online news site
Eesti Päevaleht Online for 6 days. 180 people answered this questionnaire.
The results showed that commentators are most often highly educated people in the age
of 20-44 years. There is no difference between male and female commentators – both
genders comment equally.
Most important reason for commentating is big audience. Other reasons are feel of social
belonging, possibility to clear ones own thoughts and show their disappointment in world
and life using online environment.
This study showed that being anonymous is not as important as author thought. Over
60% of people would post comments under their real name.
People who post comments mostly do this in several channels, but there are many reasons
why to prefer one or another channel. Important are newsworthiness, amount of other
commentators and obligation to register oneself before posting comments.
There is negative atmosphere in commentary rooms because there are often more
negative articles and it is difficult to give positive responses to negative things, the
questionnaire showed. Another reason is that people are not happy with Estonia today
and that only people who are not happy with their lives post comments.
One possibility to expand this research is to make interviews with commentators.
Another possible way is to study aspects of anonymity in larger group.
Keywords
H Social Sciences (General)