The State highlighted reader’s responses by posting a roundup of people’s comments and reactions to popular news stories that week. When the comment was a question about the facts of the news story or how the journalists put the story together, they answered them. Here is one of the responses provided: “Why did we write this story? The public scrutinizes so many aspects of candidates’ work and lives, and journalists make continual judgment calls about what information is interesting and relevant, and therefore worthy of coverage. Reader feedback about those judgment calls is always welcome.”
The State wanted to make sure all members of one of their Facebook groups understood their community guidelines. They also wanted to revisit the rules to clearly state what is allowed and what is not. Once they came up with the revised guidelines, they pinned the post to the top of the group. Here is what they posted: “The Buzz is a place on Facebook where those interested in South Carolina politics can discuss current events and related topics. We encourage thoughtful comments from a wide range of viewpoints and support passionate and respectful dialogue. We will not tolerate personal attacks, threats, obscenity, profanity, political campaigning or commercial promotion. Moderators maintain the right to remove violating comments and suspend or ban users when necessary.”
After receiving a lot of criticism for a published letter to the editor, The State decided to add an editor’s note to the bottom of all letters printed by the news organization. The note reads, “The State publishes a cross section of the letters we receive from South Carolinians in order to provide a forum for our community and also to allow our community to get a good look at itself, for good or bad. The letters represent the views of the letter writers, not necessarily of The State.”
