{"ID":2860818,"CreatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","UpdatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","DeletedAt":null,"paper_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.02766","arxiv_id":"2510.02766","title":"Fostering Collective Discourse: A Distributed Role-Based Approach to Online News Commenting","abstract":"Current news commenting systems are designed based on implicitly individualistic assumptions, where discussion is the result of a series of disconnected opinions. This often results in fragmented and polarized conversations that fail to represent the spectrum of public discourse. In this work, we develop a news commenting system where users take on distributed roles to collaboratively structure the comments to encourage a connected, balanced discussion space. Through a within-subject, mixed-methods evaluation (N=38), we find that the system supported three stages of participation: understanding issues, collaboratively structuring comments, and building a discussion. With our system, users' comments displayed more balanced perspectives and a more emotionally neutral argumentation. Simultaneously, we observed reduced argument strength compared to a traditional commenting system, indicating a trade-off between inclusivity and depth. We conclude with design considerations and trade-offs for introducing distributed roles in news commenting system design.","short_abstract":"Current news commenting systems are designed based on implicitly individualistic assumptions, where discussion is the result of a series of disconnected opinions. This often results in fragmented and polarized conversations that fail to represent the spectrum of public discourse. In this work, we develop a news comment...","url_abs":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.02766","url_pdf":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2510.02766v2","authors":"[\"Yoojin Hong\",\"Yersultan Doszhan\",\"Joseph Seering\"]","published":"2025-10-03T06:56:09Z","proceeding":"cs.HC","tasks":"[\"cs.HC\"]","methods":"[]","has_code":false}