The BBC website is a main news source for many people around the world. The site actively invited visitors to discuss items in the news, in the section Have your say. See also this page where the BBC asks visitors for their ideas, pictures and video files.
Thousands of comments reviewed by 4 moderators
I had a chat with moderator Sally Taft, also at the conference and showing the moderating process in the exhibition area.
How many people come to the BBC site to discuss the news?: ‘The number of contributions we get is very different depending on the topic. Sensitive issues like Iran, the Mohammed cartoons or recent political allegations can result in thousands and thousands of comments within days. And we read all of those before they get posted online!”
Most discussions run for a few days before they are closed – and there is a difference between actively and fully moderated discussions. Contributions from registered website visitors are published immediately for the less sensitive debates, but still reviewed after the fact.
To get an idea: yesterday a discussion was started on ‘How can we solve The Baby gap‘ , and to date, 851 comments are published – and 428 comments still await approval. In general, one out ten contributions is considered too off-topic or too rude, racist or sexist to publish (the percentage goes up for politically sensitive issues). Sally is one of a team of 4 moderators at the BBC that do nothing but rejecting or approving contributions all day, from 8 in the morning to 11 in the evening. And of course there are also people who just read the discussion and do not comment.
Do how popular is the Have your say page?
“So far today, 97.615 unique visitors visited the section, and they together generated 319.000 page impressions. Of those, 62.816 were attributable to the Baby gap discussion. But discussions about Prince Harry or Home Secretary Charles Clarke generated around 130.000 and 150.000 page views per day when the debate was still on”.
How many people are now handling contributions from the audience?
“The moderators are part of the ‘User generated content’ hub that was established last year after the London bombings. The unit also works with 6 journalists that are actively solicitting information from the audience on behalf of various BBC producers. They also through and organise the incoming photo’s and stories, and they save and store relevant cases and eye witness account. And an additional 4 journalists were assigned specific regions, in and outside the UK”.
How does one get to be a Have your say moderator?
“I had already started working at the BBC working in digital text editing, and moved from there. Reviewing discussion contributions all day is not something you want to do forever, but it is a very nice job to start with!”
TAG: wemedia
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