The article explores how affect is circulated and managed in comment discussions on networked online platforms, such as Facebook. A mixed-methods analysis is conducted of comments on news about the triple disaster of an earthquake, a tsunami and a meltdown of three reactors at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in March 2011 on public Facebook pages of seven Finnish mainstream news media. The article examines how affect sticks and circulates in these discussions, and how the commenters direct and sustain the mode and mood of Facebook discussions. The main findings of the article concern how online discussions are structured by what the author calls affective discipline, in which participants the discussion manage the mood of the discussion through various means. The results open up an important way to study the internal, affective dynamics of contemporary online discussions. In particular, the study helps us understand how flows of affect are shaped and steered in online discussions, and how the same discussions may simultaneously sustain multiple affective dynamics. These dynamics may, in turn contribute to how publics respond to news and official information in crises.

本文探讨了如何在网络在线平台（如Facebook）上进行评论讨论来传播和管理情感。在2011年3月日本福岛第一核电站发生的地震，海啸和三个反应堆崩溃的三重灾难的新闻报道中，有七种芬兰主流新闻媒体在Facebook的公开页面上对此评论进行了混合方法分析。本文探讨了这些讨论如何影响和传播，以及评论者如何指导和维持Facebook讨论的方式和气氛。文章的主要发现涉及作者所谓的情感学科如何构成在线讨论，参与者通过各种方式来管理讨论的气氛。结果为研究内部，当代在线讨论的情感动态。这项研究尤其有助于我们了解在线讨论中如何塑造和引导情感流，以及相同的讨论如何同时维持多种情感动力。这些动态反过来可能有助于公众在危机中如何响应新闻和官方信息。