scholarly journals More Than Just Shouting? Distinguishing Interpersonal-Directed and Elite-Directed Incivility in Online Political Talk

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630512110088
Author(s):  
Patrícia Rossini
Keyword(s):  
Online Discussions ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
News Websites ◽  
Political Talk ◽  
Problematic Feature

Online political talk is often deemed toxic to democracy due to the pervasiveness of incivility. This study challenges this perspective by examining the discursive and contextual conditions related to interpersonal incivility in contrast with incivility targeted at political elites on Facebook comments and news websites. Findings suggest that much of the vitriol online is targeted at politicians and characterized by justified opinions. Interpersonal incivility is associated with disagreement, but less likely to be associated with replies—suggesting that users refrain from uncivil direct confrontation. Taken together, these findings indicate that interpersonal-directed and elite-directed incivility are characterized by distinct discursive features and happen in opposite directions. Incivility is more than just shouting, and it is frequently used to criticize political elites and justify opinions than to attack others in a discussion. As such, it should not be inherently associated with toxic behaviors or be considered a problematic feature of online discussions.

Beyond Incivility: Understanding Patterns of Uncivil and Intolerant Discourse in Online Political Talk

2020 ◽  
pp. 009365022092131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrícia Rossini
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Conceptual Model ◽  
Online Discussion ◽  
Democratic Values ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Contextual Features ◽  
News Websites ◽  
Political Talk ◽  
Opinion Expression

This article takes up the popular argument that much online discussion is toxic and hence harmful to democracy, and argues that the pervasiveness of incivility is not incompatible with democratically relevant political talk. Instead of focusing on the tone of political talk, scholars interested in understanding the extent to which digital platforms threaten democratic values should focus on expressions of intolerance. I demonstrate the validity of this conceptual model by investigating the discursive and contextual features associated with incivility and intolerance online in the context of public comments in two different platforms—news websites and Facebook. Results show that incivility and intolerance occur in meaningfully different discussion settings. Whereas incivility is associated with features that reveal meaningful discursive engagement, such as justified opinion expression and engagement with disagreement, intolerance is likely to occur in homogeneous discussions about minorities and civil society—exactly when it can hurt democracy the most.

scholarly journals Incivility in user comments on online news articles: Investigating the role of opinion dissonance for the effects of incivility on attitudes, emotions and the willingness to participate

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 311-337
Author(s):  
Julia Lück ◽  
Carlotta Nardi
Keyword(s):  
Online Survey ◽  
Online News ◽  
Online Discussions ◽  
News Article ◽  
Willingness To Participate ◽  
Attitude Certainty ◽  
User Comments ◽  
News Websites ◽  
Online Debate

Online discussions in comment sections on news websites often do not follow deliberative standards but are instead marked by uncivil expressions of disaffirmation and frustration. This study investigates the effects uncivil statements can have on readers of those comments, especially when the opinion expressed in that comment is contrary to their beliefs. In an online experiment embedded in an online survey 427 participants were confronted with a neutral news article that was accompanied by either civil or uncivil user comments that supported or opposed their own opinions (2×2 between-subject design). Articles and commentaries dealt with the refugee question in Germany. The research focuses on readers’ open-mindedness, willingness to talk to the other side, attitude certainty, moral indignation and willingness to participate in online and offline activities when being exposed to incivility in an online debate. The results support the assumption that incivility has detrimental effects for a deliberative online discussion, but we cannot confirm that the combination of uncivil and unlike-minded comments has the most adverse effects.

Swearing Effects on Citizen-to-Citizen Commenting Online

2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Hazel Kwon ◽  
Daegon Cho
Keyword(s):  
Public Perception ◽  
Online Discussions ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
User Comments ◽  
News Websites ◽  
Default Condition ◽  
User Attention ◽  
Discursive Participation ◽  
Positive Valence ◽  
High Level

Swearing, the use of taboo languages tagged with a high level of emotional arousal, has become commonplace in contemporary political culture. The current study attempts to understand the ways in which swearing influences citizen-to-citizen news commenting online. Based on a large corpus of the 2-month user comments from 26 news websites in South Korea, the study examines swearing effects as well as its interplay with anonymity on garnering public attention and shaping other users’ perceptions of the comments. Findings suggest that swearing generally has a positive effect on increasing user attention to comments as well as gaining other users’ approvals. Comparisons between political and nonpolitical topics further suggest that swearing effect on gaining public attention is particularly prominent for political discussions. In contrast, the magnitude of change toward positive valence in public perception to comments is much greater for nonpolitical topics than for politics. From the findings, we conclude that an acceptable degree of swearing norms in online discussions vary across news topical arenas. The results also lead to discussions about the possibility of like-minded exposure to political comments as a default condition for online discussions. Finally, the study highlights the role of high-arousal emotions in shaping discursive participation in contemporary networked sociodigital environment.

Bread and circuses: shifting frames and changing references in ordinary Muscovites' political talk

2001 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Shevchenko
Keyword(s):  
Economic System ◽  
Adaptive Strategies ◽  
Economic Situation ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Russian People ◽  
Public Protest ◽  
Political Talk ◽  
Economic Collapse ◽  
Ongoing Project ◽  
Sudden Collapse

The debates around the course of the Russian transformation, intensified by the sudden collapse of the Russian economic system in August 1998, typically deal with phenomena and issues involved by analyzing the structure and functioning of political elites, parties and institutions. While all of these provide interesting and revealing data, they fail to pay sufficient attention to everyday lives of the ordinary Russian people who face increasing hardships with endurance and ingenuity. This paper is a part of an ongoing project which focuses on the adaptive strategies developed by ordinary Russians in response to a drastically changing societal environment. This paper presents some early findings pertaining to the shifts adaptive strategies of Muscovites underwent after the economic collapse, and suggests that these shifts may start to explain why, despite the dramatic worsening of the economic situation, no major public protest actions have occurred so far.

The Evolution of an SLPA Program

2009 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-11
Author(s):  
Susan Sparks ◽  
Lisa Van Horne
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Online Discussions ◽  
Speech Language Pathology ◽  
Speech Language Pathologists ◽  
Assigned Reading ◽  
Language Pathology ◽  
Strict Compliance ◽  
Increasing Demand

Abstract There is an increasing demand for qualified individuals available in our profession. One answer to this crisis is to hire trained speech-language pathology assistants (SLPAs) to assist speech language pathologists (SLPs). Shoreline Community College's SLPA program was created in response to the shortage of fully trained SLPs. The program is designed in strict compliance with ASHA's guidelines (ASHA, 2004). Students attend lectures remotely, complete assigned reading, take quizzes, engage in in-class and online discussions, turn in assignments, and take exams without ever having to commute to the Shoreline campus. This allows students from across the state to complete their education while continuing to live and work in their communities.

Assessments of User Comments With “Alternative Views” as a Function of Media Trust

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Marlene Kunst
Keyword(s):  
Online Discussions ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Argument Quality ◽  
The Public ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
User Comments ◽  
Media Trust ◽  
Heuristic Information Processing

Abstract. Comments sections under news articles have become popular spaces for audience members to oppose the mainstream media’s perspective on political issues by expressing alternative views. This kind of challenge to mainstream discourses is a necessary element of proper deliberation. However, due to heuristic information processing and the public concern about disinformation online, readers of comments sections may be inherently skeptical about user comments that counter the views of mainstream media. Consequently, commenters with alternative views may participate in discussions from a position of disadvantage because their contributions are scrutinized particularly critically. Nevertheless, this effect has hitherto not been empirically established. To address this gap, a multifactorial, between-subjects experimental study ( N = 166) was conducted that investigated how participants assess the credibility and argument quality of media-dissonant user comments relative to media-congruent user comments. The findings revealed that media-dissonant user comments are, indeed, disadvantaged in online discussions, as they are assessed as less credible and more poorly argued than media-congruent user comments. Moreover, the findings showed that the higher the participants’ level of media trust, the worse the assessment of media-dissonant user comments relative to media-congruent user comments. Normative implications and avenues for future research are discussed.

Student Motivation of In-Depth Reasoning in Online Discussions

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tianyi Zhang ◽  
Matthew J. Koehler ◽  
Fei Gao
Keyword(s):  
Student Motivation ◽  
Online Discussions
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