News Sites Still Ponder Value of Online Communities
Most online news outlets have been fairly timid in their exploitation of online discussion groups and forums, as highlighted by a recent USC Annenberg OJR article, with few outlets using these capabilities and fewer still actively encouraging them. Yet as the article points out, recent research shows that users of these features are five times more likely to visit these sites and far more engaged with the "real" content. Key to the success of these features is tying the threads to specific articles or areas of discussion, so that they amplify the value of editorial output. All of this, of course, is very familiar to anyone who is engaged in collaborative knowledge mangaement initiatives "inside the firewall" of so many institutions these days, as well as to public Web sites that have not grown up on the notion of publishing as a black and ancient art. When audiences value information and opinions from peers as much as from those who try to make a living sharing theirs with the world, news organizations need to rethink their identities very carefully.