The right to reply and the publication of corrections are guaranteed at levels of both the national code of ethics and that of media law. Most news media also provide spaces for commenting on news pieces online and in social media, although many outlets have recently begun to move away from unmoderated and anonymous comments sections in order to avoid harassment and other objectionable content. User-generated content, such as photographs, video, and social media content, is also used, but this shows a lot of variance between different types of news media. The Internet sites of news media typically also contain surveys, feedback features, and other interactive content for viewers. According to the interviewees, the early enthusiasm for user-generated content has dissipated and been replaced by the use of social media. This has been both as a news source and as a platform for audience feedback.
Most of the interviewees expressed ambivalence towards online commenting. Comments are generally encouraged, but it was noted by multiple interviewees that open online commenting spaces can potentially become dominated by trolls as well as extremist views:
UGC today consists mostly of commentaries on social media. The feedback comes from a small group. Those who have the time to comment do it often. During the last five years the True Finns policy seems to be taking a trolling role. Often the third comment on any news already relates to immigration. This leads to many refraining from commenting (IL journalist 2020).
At Yle, for example, almost all online news items were previously open for comments, which resulted in chaotic discussions and an overabundance of improper behaviour. In 2019, an automatic moderating algorithm was adopted, which was still unsatisfactory. Since 2020, human editors in cooperation moderate discussions with a service provided by the STT. Other new media reports similar experiments. According to the interviews, and compared with a decade ago, a better balance now seems to have been found between completely open forums and moderated discussions.
According to one editor-in-chief, it is obvious that “the citizens affect the contents of the paper more than they did ten years ago”. The significance of social media as a forum of dialogue between journalists and audiences has also increased in this time. According to one interviewee, “What the paying customer wants is openness in social media, answers to questions and dialogue, and not so much that they might produce content actively”.
The local newspaper Östnyland stood out from the larger media organisations in our sample. According to the interviews, their newsroom was easy to approach, as people can just walk through the door or suggest ideas in random meetings around town. Larger media organisations, and the public broadcaster Yle in particular, tended to organise special events and Q&A sessions to interact with audiences. Yle has also founded a new “Head of Audience Dialogue” position to promote participation and audience relations.
