Will comments shape your opinion?

Question is in the title

Online comments have been hailed as the current big trend in the Public Relations field (Crijns, Cauberghe, Hudders, & Claeys, 2017; Rim & Song, 2016; Sung & Lee, 2015), despite some news sites (e.g., Chicago Sun-Times) eliminating commenting functions in their websites (NeimanLab, 2015). Exposure to crisis-related information available in social media and blogs affects public perception of a crisis (Stephens & Malone, 2009); this indicates a possibility that exposing participants to user-generated content can mitigate perception towards a crisis situation. Such trends should reflect a shift of public relations roles with more emphasis on interactive features such as commenting in online media—given that the public has begun to play a crucial role in shaping opinion through interaction with organizations. This states the potential problem of practitioners’ best use of online communication outlets in public relations strategies. For instance, Crijns et al. (2017) recognized the impact of negative comments and advised that organizations should provide responses to negative online comments to positively influence publics. It is difficult for crisis managers to alter user-generated crisis-related messages. This lack of control calls for empirical research to understand the effect of unrefined information online to resolve organizational vulnerability (Gruber, Smerek, Thomas-Hunt, & James, 2015).

Taken together, trends in the concurrent rise of comments, online readers’ comments, clicks, and “likes” raise an important question in the current paper: will such cues affect the public's perceptions towards a crisis situation? Previous studies have begun to recognize newsreaders’ growing influence on shaping the public sphere, as aggregated data (i.e., number of clicks or number of emailed news articles) impacts individuals’ attitudes and behaviour patterns (Duan, Gu, & Whinston, 2008; Hong & Park, 2012; Kim, 2014) as well as news consumption (Knobloch-Westerwick, Sharma, Hansen, & Alter, 2005). However, Sung and Lee (2015) criticized the lack of extensive research in examining the impact of what people say online on individuals’ perception. Given the shortage, a worthwhile next step should involve examining the impact of crisis-related information available online that may influence public perception. Thus, this paper aims to investigate how information provided by people in online news media would form public perception towards an organization portrayed in a crisis news article.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com...

The answer? Yes they probably will.

Similarly, Sundar (2008) termed the same phenomenon as the bandwagon effect/heuristic, as he argued that individuals are likely to assume that something is correct if many others think that is the case. The bandwagon heuristic simply signifies perceived endorsement by other people (Sundar, Knobloch-Westerwick, & Hastall, 2007). The bandwagon effect refers to the tendency for social constituents to emulate the consensus among a critical mass of peers as their focal choice (Bass, 1969; Simon, 1954). People have the propensity to gravitate towards content with high popularity because they associate the quantity of viewings with the quality of its appeal (Fu & Sim, 2011). In this regard, the number of “likes” can be operationalized as a heuristic cue that triggers bandwagon perceptions.

Sorry I dont have more to say about this but honestly reading this study or whatever is really made me see that you have to be very careful and make sure you are figuring things out for yourself not letting popular comments that may or may not be made by actual people shape your opinion.

a reply to: Shoshanna

just make a tick tock video of how awesome someone is, and everyone will vote for them. Folks are tired of thinking, it takes too much effort. Ever see the documentary "idiocracy"? It's what plants crave.

a reply to: network dude

Hehe yeah I've seen it. seems like thats exactly whats happening too.

originally posted by: network dude
Ever see the documentary "idiocracy"? It's what plants crave.

Yes and we are living it.

Will comments shape your opinion?

Nope. I read comments for entertainment.
Other peoples opinions pretty much mean nothing to me ...

a reply to: network dude

Ever see the documentary "idiocracy"?

Thank you for putting that film in the correct genre. It is a documentary.
While we're setting the record straight, the books "1984" and "Brave New World" are incorrectly classified as 'fiction'.

Studies like that beg the question, did they only ask stupid people?

Online comments only motivate me to do deep dives into a issue. Invariably 80% of the time some jackwagon only cherry picked a portion of a article to suit their bias. The bias being "I need clicks or likes".

I'd bet a paycheck the people selected to participate in studies like that were done by algorithms based on their online footprint. Check someones FB page, realize they share 200 idiotic things a day "winner winner chicken dinner!!"
Just depressing.

Will comments shape your opinion?

Depends on who's making the comments. Most people are in love with the sound of their own voice; I tend not to take those people into consideration.

a reply to: lilzazz

I like to comment on ATS mostly because I enjoy using my typing skills. This is why my posts are so often long winded. In this post for instance, I"m fighting mightily against that urge just to keep it short.

I try to analyze all information I read and attempt to fit it all together before I make an opinion, and as new evidence comes in on something I analyze that and compare it to what I know and adjust my opinion with that. Usually I am more apt to wait till I get a lot of info before making a judgement. I learned long ago if I try to stay neutral with my line of thinking it is easier to adjust my opinion later on. I do not try to jump at new information and reinforce my opinion. My mind is always open and it seems there is some truth and some misinterpretation or lies in everything. Knowing that the knowledge and opinions we hold influences our interpretation of things is critical to analyzing things. I am occasionally wrong, but most times I am partially wrong when I am wrong.

Does social media effect me...a little, I consider everything but know many people interpret things to fit their beliefs so I like to look at the evidence they are using to judge whether their interpretation is relevant, right, wrong, partly right, or partially wrong. It takes way more processing to determine what is really going on, more than most people want to put the effort into.

Much of what I study is related to food, nutrition, and chemistry and pharmaceutical method of action. Most people , including those who are interpreting the evidence are not getting it right, they are interpreting the research by their beliefs. This also goes for stuff like the assassination attempt. Am I always interpreting things right? Hell no, I am human. But I try to take everything into consideration, I tend to not focus on part of something, I try to look at the whole picture.

I also like to debate things because debating keeps my mind fluid so I do not wind up focusing too much on one path in the tree of life's complex human diversity of opinion.

I know too many people in person who are stuck on their beliefs, so they wind up on the wrong path on this trek through time and cannot understand they are on the wrong path of consciousness. It makes life interesting if they do not go overboard and inappropriately choose to stay on that path and trash others view of things who are on a different path. Sometimes you just have to go back to the main path if you chose the wrong way and continue towards the truth.

No, it won't. It does make me fear that we are becoming stupider as a society.

But I don't trust most comments from people. I want to read as much factual information as possible.


Only a couple sheep on this site. Most people do their homework. Whatever side of the fence your on.

originally posted by: FlyersFan

Will comments shape your opinion?

Nope. I read comments for entertainment.
Other peoples opinions pretty much mean nothing to me ...

I've always found your opinions entertaining, enlightening and succinct. I thought that was somewhat reciprocated but apparently not.

I'm crushed.

j/k

a reply to: Moon68

There are those on here that think too highly of themselves and see everything they have to say as gospel.

They are easy to get sidetracked and irritate.

originally posted by: PorkChop96
a reply to: Moon68

There are those on here that think too highly of themselves and see everything they have to say as gospel.

They are easy to get sidetracked and irritate.

Gee, if you said gossip instead of gospel, that would clear things up and fix things. Ok, maybe I am getting a little side tracked, kind of boring day here.