Joseph M. Reagle Jr., Reading the Comments: Likers, Haters, and Manipulators at the Bottom of the Web

There are many challenges in social research that result from the ubiquity of user-generated content for public consumption and its subsequent evaluation by online communities. This mode of communication is perhaps too often regarded as trivial, but the social dynamics of virtual publics may be the key to people understanding one another. The designated comment sections are spaces where anyone with an Internet connection has the ability to anonymously post their thoughts with little fear of repercussion. Have these comment sections become so riddled with meaningless blather, insidious claims, and inflammatory language that they are best left ignored or disabled altogether? Do they reveal anything about collective human behavior, or should they be dismissed as inconsequential accessories to the primary content of a website? In Reading the Comments: Likers, Haters, and Manipulators at the Bottom of the Web, Joseph Reagle dives into the dark depths of the Internet and discusses online comment as a genre of communication that is a means of portraying the self and influencing others.