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User comments are the most popular form of audience participation in various online media - and constitute a timely and relevant field of research.User comments are explored in studies from the perspective of different disciplines (e.g., communication studies, psychology, political science) with different thematic focuses (e.g., democratic norms, extremist behavior, product perceptions). The widespread study of user comments across disciplines has resulted in a multiplicity of terms and constructs, and thus a lack of clarity about the topics discussed. With this computational review work, we uncovered six relevant, overarching themes and their evolution in the field. By combining computational text analysis and qualitative evaluation, we were able to describe the current state of research and found an inherently interdisciplinary body of literature. We observed inter- and intra-disciplinary fragmentation and suggest greater systematization of the terms used, constructs, and topics studied.

Schindler, M., & Domahidi, E. (2021). The growing field of interdisciplinary research on user comments: A computational scoping review. New Media & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444821994491