ABSTRACT
This chapter advocates for documenting the ways that web-journalists contend with reader comments because it enables technical and professional communication (TPC) scholars to better understand the balancing act online writers maintain when engaging a readership while maintaining authoritative control over their texts. The strategies in this chapter are useful for TPC scholars because the strategies recognize the value of reader participation while coping with the necessity to remain true to facts of reported science. The author first foregrounds the contexts of the writers' organizations by labeling them "all-edge adhocracies," which extends Clay Spinuzzi's All Edge. The second section lays out the author's methodology: five case studies of professional web-journalists. The writers in this chapter demonstrate that 21st century online communication practices can impose two different purposes: to create a community by monitoring, managing, and responding to comments, while simultaneously retaining control and authority over those texts.
