The comments on a Boston.com story about President Obama's Kenyan-born aunt, Zeituni Onyango, who was granted asylum in the United States, were particularly virulent.
News websites like Boston.com are inundated with comments — often hundreds of them on a single story — nasty, hateful, anonymous comments. It seems like a free-for-all. Trolls hide behind their keyboards to hurl insults at one another. You have to wonder, who are these people?
In his upcoming cover story for the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, journalist Neil Swidey interviewed some of the heaviest users of online comment threads to understand what motivates them. He shares with us what he discovered.
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Inside The Minds Of Anonymous Commenters
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News websites like Boston.com are inundated with comments — often hundreds of them on a single story — nasty, hateful, anonymous comments. It seems like a free-for-all. Trolls hide behind their keyboards to hurl insults at one another. You have to wonder, who are these people?
In his upcoming cover story for the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, journalist Neil Swidey interviewed some of the heaviest users of online comment threads to understand what motivates them. He shares with us what he discovered.
Guests:
This program aired on June 18, 2010.
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