Online Newspapers and the Comment Sections: Perception and Use

Development in online communication within the last decade which coincided with the advent of web2.0 technologies has enabled user generated content online. This development saw the evolve of print newspapers to it online version. The comment platform is the space attached beneath an online newspaper where readers register their views on the news content. This place of deliberation which serves to gauge public opinion on the affairs of the nation can be muddled with users view of the content of new stories, the news media and its comment section. Research has shown that readers of online newspapers use the comment section for various purposes. This work focused on online Nigerian newspaper and its readers, Thus, it examined users’ perception of Nigerian news sites and its online comment section as well as investigating the various uses of the comment section by Nigerian online media users. It hinged on the Uses and Gratification theory. Online survey method was adopted to distribute five hundred copies of online questionnaires with a return rate of 406 copies. Data was collected and analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The findings revealed that most readers of Nigerian news sites perceive news content as biased and that affiliation of news site to a particular zone affects readers view of the news stories. In addition, it discovered that the comment section of online Nigerian news site is used mostly for sharing ideas