Newspapers Try Not To Feed Trolls

Trolls haunt most newspaper sites and blogs, trying to inflame others. This week, WBEZ Chicago’s “This American Life” tried to alter and examine the common Internet axiom: Anonymity + An Audience = Filth. Ira Glass brings us four stories about Internet trolling, with the strongest being an intensely personal radio essay from Jezebel contributor Lindy West about a troll who starts a Twitter account using her dead father as inspiration. At the SR’s Tech Deck blog, Kip Hill uses “The American Life” story on trolls to comment: “There was a lot of discussion when the Spokesman-Review chose to suspend online commenting during the holidays in 2013 . We’ve also modified our commenting section recently to reflect journalism industry trends moving online comments from the body of the story, which also received a great deal of comments .” Full post here.

Question: Do you like what the Spokesman has done with commenting, and do these stories resonate with you at all? Have you ever been the victim (or perpetrator) of trolling?

does exactly that. Ira Glass brings us four stories about Internet trolling, with the strongest being an intensely personal radio essay from Jezebel contributor Lindy West about a troll who starts a Twitter account using her dead father as inspiration.