Online Incivility and Public Debate

Online Incivility and Public Debate PDF Author: Gina Masullo Chen
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319562738
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 221

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book investigates what influence online incivility—through user-generated comments on news websites—has on public debate. Built on the premise that public discussions about important topics are vital to a healthy democracy, the book analyzes 3,508 online comments in order to understand what factors in comments make them more susceptible to incivility, defined as nasty remarks rife with profanity. It also examines comments for attributes of deliberation, which are discussions across difference supported by evidence and rational arguments. Using an experiment, the book shows that uncivil comments jumpstart a chain reaction, leading first to negative emotion and then to greater intention to get politically involved. Overall, Online Incivility and Public Debate: Nasty Talk argues that while incivility mars online debate, it may also spark interest in important topics and allow for positive “deliberative moments” of quality discussion.

Online Incivility and Public Debate

Online Incivility and Public Debate PDF Author: Gina Masullo Chen
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319562738
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 221

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book investigates what influence online incivility—through user-generated comments on news websites—has on public debate. Built on the premise that public discussions about important topics are vital to a healthy democracy, the book analyzes 3,508 online comments in order to understand what factors in comments make them more susceptible to incivility, defined as nasty remarks rife with profanity. It also examines comments for attributes of deliberation, which are discussions across difference supported by evidence and rational arguments. Using an experiment, the book shows that uncivil comments jumpstart a chain reaction, leading first to negative emotion and then to greater intention to get politically involved. Overall, Online Incivility and Public Debate: Nasty Talk argues that while incivility mars online debate, it may also spark interest in important topics and allow for positive “deliberative moments” of quality discussion.

A Crisis of Civility?

A Crisis of Civility? PDF Author: Robert G. Boatright
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351051962
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 245

Get Book Here

Book Description
The state of political discourse in the United States today has been a subject of concern for many Americans. Political incivility is not merely a problem for political elites; political conversations between American citizens have also become more difficult and tense. The 2016 presidential elections featured campaign rhetoric designed to inflame the general public. Yet the 2016 election was certainly not the only cause of incivility among citizens. There have been many instances in recent years where reasoned discourse in our universities and other public venues has been threatened. This book was undertaken as a response to these problems. It presents and develops a more robust discussion of what civility is, why it matters, what factors might contribute to it, and what its consequences are for democratic life. The authors included here pursue three major questions: Is the state of American political discourse today really that bad, compared to prior eras; what lessons about civility can we draw from the 2016 election; and how have changes in technology such as the development of online news and other means of mediated communication changed the nature of our discourse? This book seeks to develop a coherent, civil conversation between divergent contemporary perspectives in political science, communications, history, sociology, and philosophy. This multidisciplinary approach helps to reflect on challenges to civil discourse, define civility, and identify its consequences for democratic life in a digital age. In this accessible text, an all-star cast of contributors tills the earth in which future discussion on civility will be planted.

The Social Context of Online News

The Social Context of Online News PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 284

Get Book Here

Book Description
The online communication environment brings together social interpersonal discussions and news media in a simultaneous and physically proximate fashion. While previous studies have examined the effects of media use and interpersonal discussion on attitudes about and engagement with a variety of issues, research has yet to examine the social context of online news--or the juxtaposition of user-generated content alongside traditional news media content. In this dissertation, I explore this phenomenon in greater detail through examination of one particular type of online social communication: audience comments. I look specifically at how uncivil online comments affect public participation and public opinion across two different controversial scientific issues. First, I examine the nature of online comments by employing computer sentiment analysis to assess levels of incivility in more than 100,000 comments about nanotechnology and nuclear energy. Second, using an online experiment given to a sample representative of the U.S. population, I examine the effects of uncivil comments following a newspaper blog post on how people participate in and form judgments about nanotechnology and nuclear energy. Results show that incivility is a persistent phenomenon in online comments across two distinct scientific issues. Exposure to uncivil comments also has several effects on society; they 1) depress participation in a public forum on nanotechnology or nuclear energy, and 2) affect evaluations of the media sources to which they are connected. Furthermore, results reveal that individuals' experiences with media and with established issues make a difference in how they evaluate online media. I argue that social perspectives prominent in online media play an important role in how people perceive and engage in scientific issues. This research draws from a couple of approaches within communication scholarship, including the integration of mass and interpersonal communication and deliberative democracy. However, the key perspective my dissertation draws from and contributes to is the co-existing nature of interpersonal and mass communication types. It is imperative that communication scholarship considers the influence of mass and interpersonal communication forms together rather than as distinct forms of communication.

The Outrage Industry

The Outrage Industry PDF Author: Jeffrey M. Berry
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190498463
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 286

Get Book Here

Book Description
A stimulating expose on how the roots of today's partisan rage lie in the "outrage industry" - deregulated, commodified media markets that will do anything for money and attention.

The Media, the Public and Agricultural Biotechnology

The Media, the Public and Agricultural Biotechnology PDF Author: Dominique Brossard
Publisher: CABI
ISBN: 184593203X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 415

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book reviews the literature on communication about biotechnology. Other books deal with this topic, however this book with the use of case studies, looks at public opinion data, communication theory, and international examples; to provide a complementary overview of how the public sees this controversial topic.

The Oxford Handbook of Political Communication

The Oxford Handbook of Political Communication PDF Author: Kate Kenski
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199793484
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 977

Get Book Here

Book Description
Since its development shaped by the turmoil of the World Wars and suspicion of new technologies such as film and radio, political communication has become a hybrid field largely devoted to connecting the dots among political rhetoric, politicians and leaders, voters' opinions, and media exposure to better understand how any one aspect can affect the others. In The Oxford Handbook of Political Communication Kate Kenski and Kathleen Hall Jamieson bring together leading scholars, including founders of the field of political communication Elihu Katz, Jay Blumler, Doris Graber, Max McCombs, and Thomas Paterson,to review the major findings about subjects ranging from the effects of political advertising and debates and understandings and misunderstandings of agenda setting, framing, and cultivation to the changing contours of social media use in politics and the functions of the press in a democratic system. The essays in this volume reveal that political communication is a hybrid field with complex ancestry, permeable boundaries, and interests that overlap with those of related fields such as political sociology, public opinion, rhetoric, neuroscience, and the new hybrid on the quad, media psychology. This comprehensive review of the political communication literature is an indispensible reference for scholars and students interested in the study of how, why, when, and with what effect humans make sense of symbolic exchanges about sharing and shared power. The sixty-two chapters in The Oxford Handbook of Political Communication contain an overview of past scholarship while providing critical reflection of its relevance in a changing media landscape and offering agendas for future research and innovation.

Scandal in a Digital Age

Scandal in a Digital Age PDF Author: Hinda Mandell
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137595450
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 230

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book explores the way today’s interconnected and digitized world--marked by social media, over-sharing, and blurred lines between public and private spheres--shapes the nature and fallout of scandal in a frenzied media environment. Today’s digitized world has erased the former distinction between the public and private self in the social sphere. Scandal in a Digital Age marries scholarly research on scandal with journalistic critique to explore how our Internet culture driven by (over)sharing and viral, visual content impacts the occurrence of scandal and its rapid spread online through retweets and reposts. No longer are examples of scandalous behavior “merely” reported in the news. Today, news consumers can see the visual evidence of salacious behavior whether through an illicit tweet or video with a simple click. And we can’t help but click.

Introduction to Public Forum and Congressional Debate

Introduction to Public Forum and Congressional Debate PDF Author: Jeffrey Hannan
Publisher: Idea
ISBN: 9781617700385
Category : Debates and debating
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
Conceived and written by three of the most successful and talented National Forensic League coaches and educators, this text brings together current best practices for Public Forum and Congressional Debate.

Retooling Politics

Retooling Politics PDF Author: Andreas Jungherr
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108419402
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 337

Get Book Here

Book Description
Provides academics, journalists, and general readers with bird's-eye view of data-driven practices and their impact in politics and media.

Combative Politics

Combative Politics PDF Author: Mary Layton Atkinson
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022644192X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 228

Get Book Here

Book Description
From the Affordable Care Act to No Child Left Behind, politicians often face a puzzling problem: although most Americans support the aims and key provisions of these policies, they oppose the bills themselves. How can this be? Why does the American public so often reject policies that seem to offer them exactly what they want? By the time a bill is pushed through Congress or ultimately defeated, we’ve often been exposed to weeks, months—even years—of media coverage that underscores the unpopular process of policymaking, and Mary Layton Atkinson argues that this leads us to reject the bill itself. Contrary to many Americans’ understandings of the policymaking process, the best answer to a complex problem is rarely self-evident, and politicians must weigh many potential options, each with merits and drawbacks. As the public awaits a resolution, the news media tend to focus not on the substance of the debate but on descriptions of partisan combat. This coverage leads the public to believe everyone in Washington has lost sight of the problem altogether and is merely pursuing policies designed for individual political gain. Politicians in turn exacerbate the problem when they focus their objections to proposed policies on the lawmaking process, claiming, for example, that a bill is being pushed through Congress with maneuvers designed to limit minority party input. These negative portrayals become linked in many people’s minds with the policy itself, leading to backlash against bills that may otherwise be seen as widely beneficial. Atkinson argues that journalists and educators can make changes to help inoculate Americans against the idea that debate always signifies dysfunction in the government. Journalists should strive to better connect information about policy provisions to the problems they are designed to ameliorate. Educators should stress that although debate sometimes serves political interests, it also offers citizens a window onto the lawmaking process that can help them evaluate the work their government is doing.