[PDF] Online Incivility And Public Debate eBook

Author : Gina Masullo Chen
Publisher : Springer
Page : 221 pages
File Size : 48,45 MB
Release : 2017-06-25
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 3319562738

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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.

Author : Robert G. Boatright
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 245 pages
File Size : 28,66 MB
Release : 2019-02-18
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1351051962

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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.

Author :
Publisher :
Page : 284 pages
File Size : 38,56 MB
Release : 2012
Category :
ISBN :

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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.

Author : Dominique Brossard
Publisher : CABI
Page : 415 pages
File Size : 27,99 MB
Release :
Category : Science
ISBN : 184593203X

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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.

Author : Jeffrey M. Berry
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 286 pages
File Size : 27,36 MB
Release : 2014
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 0190498463

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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.

Author : Emily Sydnor
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 215 pages
File Size : 36,89 MB
Release : 2019-10-08
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0231548257

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The majority of Americans think that politics has an “incivility problem” and that this problem is only getting worse. Research demonstrates that negativity and rudeness in politics have been increasing for decades. But how does this tide of impolite-to-outrageous language affect our reactions to media coverage and our political behavior? Disrespectful Democracy offers a new account of the relationship between incivility and political behavior based on a key individual predisposition—conflict orientation. Individuals experience conflict in different ways; some enjoy arguments while others are uncomfortable and avoid confrontation. Drawing on a range of original surveys and experiments, Emily Sydnor contends that the rise of incivility in political media has transformed political involvement. Citizens now need to be able to tolerate or even welcome incivility in the public sphere in order to participate in the democratic process. Yet individuals who are turned off by incivility are not brought back in by civil presentation of issues. Sydnor considers the challenges in evaluating incivility’s normative benefits and harms to the political system: despite some detrimental aspects, certain levels of incivility in certain venues can promote political engagement, and confrontational behavior can be a vital tool in the citizen’s democratic arsenal. A rigorous and empirically informed analysis of political rhetoric and behavior, Disrespectful Democracy also proposes strategies to engage citizens across the range of conflict orientations.

Author : Kate Kenski
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 977 pages
File Size : 42,48 MB
Release : 2017-06-23
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0199793484

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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.

Author : Andreas Jungherr
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 337 pages
File Size : 42,15 MB
Release : 2020-06-11
Category : Computers
ISBN : 1108419402

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

Author : Jeffrey Hannan
Publisher : Idea
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 12,69 MB
Release : 2012
Category : Debates and debating
ISBN : 9781617700385

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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.

Author : Mary Layton Atkinson
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 228 pages
File Size : 45,63 MB
Release : 2017-04-27
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 022644192X

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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.