--- title: "5. Heavy commenting activity concentrated among a minority of users" description: "The engagement level of Reddit users taking part in the candidate discussions over the three months studied echoes earlier research about other digital spaces. The majority of authors offered just a single comment naming a candidate, while fewer came back with multiple comments over the course of the study. Fully six-in-ten of almost 100,000 authors […]" date: "2016-02-25" authors: - name: "Michael Barthel" job_title: "Former Senior Researcher" link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/michael-barthel/" - name: "Galen Stocking" job_title: "Associate Director, Research" link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/galen-stocking/" - name: "Jesse Holcomb" job_title: "Former Associate Director" link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/jesse-holcomb/" - name: "Amy Mitchell" job_title: "Former Director, Journalism Research" link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/amy-mitchell/" url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2016/02/25/heavy-commenting-activity-concentrated-among-a-minority-of-users/" categories: - "Digital News Landscape" - "Election 2016" - "Election News" - "Election News" - "News Content Analysis" - "News Coverage" - "News Platforms & Sources" - "Social Media" - "Social Media & the News" --- # 5. Heavy commenting activity concentrated among a minority of users [![Most naming a candidate on Reddit do so in only one comment](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2016/02/PJ_2016.02.25_reddit_5-01.png)](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2016/02/25/nearly-eight-in-ten-reddit-users-get-news-on-the-site/pj_2016-02-25_reddit_5-01/) The engagement level of Reddit users taking part in the candidate discussions over the three months studied echoes earlier research about other digital spaces. The majority of [authors](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2016/02/25/terminology/#authors) offered just a single [comment](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2016/02/25/terminology/#comments) naming a candidate, while fewer came back with multiple comments over the course of the study. Fully six-in-ten of almost 100,000 authors posted just a single comment naming a presidential candidate. A quarter posted three or more. Undoubtedly there may be instances where a user added additional comments without mentioning a candidate directly. But these findings reinforce much of what we have found in previous studies: A [2015 study](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2015/03/05/facebook-and-twitter-new-but-limited-parts-of-the-local-news-system/) of local news habits found that just a small share (less than one-fifth) of commenters to Facebook pages of news outlets left more than two comments. Another study found that on [Twitter](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2015/08/19/how-do-americans-use-twitter-for-news/) a small core of active users (12%) tweeted 100 times or more during a four week period. Among all social media users, [we have found](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2014/03/26/8-key-takeaways-about-social-media-and-news/) that just a small fraction say they have posted videos or photos they themselves have taken of a news event. ### Repeat commenters more likely to discuss multiple candidates and parties – and to be downvoted [![Repeat commenters drive conversation on Reddit](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2016/02/PJ_2016.02.25_reddit_5-02.png)](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2016/02/25/nearly-eight-in-ten-reddit-users-get-news-on-the-site/pj_2016-02-25_reddit_5-02/) Highly engaged users – those who left three or more comments – tended to leave more than just three comments, as well as participate in multiple forums. About one-in-five of these commenters (21%) left more than 10 comments naming a candidate over the three months studied, and nearly half (45%) posted a comment naming at least one candidate in three or more [subreddits](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2016/02/25/terminology/#subreddits). Users who left three or more comments differed in terms of the number of candidates and parties they mentioned. Among these active commenters, 90% mentioned multiple candidates, with about two-thirds (64%) mentioning three or more. This far outpaces the 38% of all users who mentioned multiple candidates (19% of whom mentioned three or more). This is also true at the party level. Nearly three-quarters (72%) of these highly engaged commenters named candidates from both the Republican and Democratic parties, compared with only about a quarter (26%) of all users in our analysis. [![Repeat Reddit commenters stand out for whom they name and how their comments are received](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2016/02/PJ_2016.02.25_reddit_5-03.png)](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2016/02/25/nearly-eight-in-ten-reddit-users-get-news-on-the-site/pj_2016-02-25_reddit_5-03/) Data on [upvoting and downvoting](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2016/02/25/terminology/#upvoting-and-downvoting) behavior reinforce the notion that repeat commenters operate differently on Reddit than do one-time commenters. Overall, 15% of authors had one or more comments naming a presidential candidate voted down. However, among repeat commenters, that jumps to nearly four-in-ten (36%). This could be because such commenters are more passionate on the subject and thus more likely to inspire a reaction, or it may more simply be that posting multiple times presents more opportunities to have a comment voted down. --- **Next:** [Acknowledgments](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2016/02/25/reddit-acknowledgments.md)