Every now and then, students and aspiring journalists write to me for advice about entering the field. Here’s an email I sent recently, published with permission.
Today’s question is incredibly brief in order to cut out personal details.
Dear Lauren, I was personally attacked in the comments of an article I wrote. Has this ever happened to you?
Show me an online reporter who hasn’t gotten less-than-kind comments on an article, and I’ll show you a liar. Since the Internet allows commenters to get away with criticism, bullying, and even death threats with total impunity, mean comments are pervasive and they’re not going away anytime soon.
And it’s not just that mean comments are easy to leave on an article. People wouldn’t post them if they weren’t effective. Sure, everyone says “don’t feed the trolls,” but the reason it’s so hard NOT to is because they actually do get under your skin.
So long story short, I’ve faced plenty of personal attacks in the comments section. Here’s a good example. Plenty of the comments on this article question my ability as a journalist or writer and accuse me of taking sides. At one time, I would have been ashamed to share this. But it’s easier when I realize these comments were written with the exacting purpose of figuring out which phrasing would hurt me the most.
Sometimes mean comments are a good thing. When you get a lot of mean comments saying the same thing, it hurts, but it can help you realize ways to improve. For example, since a lot of those comments accused me of taking a side, it forced me to evaluate whether I truly did my best reporting the story honestly. (Though I would have preferred some kinder constructive criticism to come to that conclusion!)
But most of the time, they’re not helpful at all. I’ll never forget the barrage of comments I got to my site from 4chan after I dared to write about Pokémon fan art for Kotaku. I was an intern at the time, and my story could have used a bit more work, but I don’t know why anybody thought that calling me “ugly as a dog” would make me a better reporter.
So, there’s my answer. But I’m guessing you had a followup question to this. Something like, “So what do you do when you get personally attacked in the comments of your own article?”
Most of the time? Nothing. If it’s against the commenting policy of the outlet you work for, an editor might delete it. Or comment that it’s an “unhelpful” comment and link to the commenting policy. If it’s on your own blog, keep it or delete it, whichever is most comfortable for you. And put a comment policy in place for next time.
In very rare cases, you should reply, but only when the commenter has legitimate criticism that they’ve presented more cruelly than they might have intended. If they say, “X is wrong, asshole!” and X really is wrong, you can let them know you’ve updated the story. Nothing more, nothing less. It might even remind the commenter that there’s a person writing that article and to be less brusque next time.
One last thing to think about—you’re never alone. That personal attack was intended for you as the writer, but since it’s public, other readers can see it too. Unless you get into an ill-advised flamewar (please don’t), that solitary mean statement just makes the commenter look like a bully. You don’t need to call them out to know other people are looking at it and shaking their heads at how awful the Internet has become.
Don’t doubt yourself, and just keep putting yourself out there. It’d be pretty silly to let one troll commenter or two make you quit your journalism career. I’m rooting for you!
Do you have a question you’d like to ask? Drop me an email or visit my Tumblr Ask box.
(Homestuck troll papercraft by ~kittyintheraiyn. Couldn’t resist.)