Marc Ziegele (PhD, University of Mainz) is an assistant professor at the Department of Social Sciences at the Heinrich Heine University Dusseldorf. He is also head of the project “Deliberative Discussions in the Social Web” funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia. His research on online journalism, online user discussions, and reader comments has been published in international journals, such as the Journal of Communication and Communication Research. Recent publications include a guest-edited special issue of Studies in Communication and Media on the management, quality, and effects of reader comments.