Incivility in public discourse is a central concern for scholars and citizens alike. However, the definitions of the concept offered by scholars are dissimilar and difficult to compare. This research, which adopts an approach based on citizens’ perceptions of incivility, addresses this issue by empirically testing a three-dimensional model of political incivility. The findings of a survey of 797 students to track differences in perceptions of specific types of uncivil speech show that political incivility consists of a three-dimensional concept, that is, incivility as “impoliteness,” as “individual delegitimization,” and as “institutional delegitimization.” Future studies can use this model to corroborate these results and verify whether this composition of the concept holds up in other contexts.

The study addresses central issues in contemporary politics in response to growing concern about the impoverishment of political discourse that has become increasingly uncivil. In particular it analhyzes citizens' reactions to leaders' uncivil posts on Facebook during the 2018 Italian General Election, by adopting a theoretical-operational model based on a dual approach (top down -bottom up) that examines the forms of adverse communication used by politicians online, and the consequences of these forms on users' discussion (analyzing both ranking behaviors and users' comments).Political incivility is operationalized as a multidimensional concept and specific types are proposed, starting from violations of norms of politeness (interpersonal-level) and proceeding to violation of public norms of civility (public-level). Results show that leaders' use of uncivil messages trigger greater online participation, thus increasing the visibility of their posts. However, the emotional excitement elicited by these triggering forms of elite communication encourage antagonistic and rude behaviors among users, leading to an increase in uncivil comments and thus jeopardizing the quality of online discussion. Overall, it emerges that incivility combined with divisive issues can be thought of as a tool of communication used strategically by politicians to mobilize voters and to strengthen their political affiliation.

Despite the major changes that have occurred in the ecology of media, this article considers mediatization to be still a concept valuable for grasping and interpreting relations among political communication actors. This article analyses the use of Twitter by politicians as evidenced by journalists’ accounts (and practices). In particular, it focuses on journalistic uses of Twitter in the context of political current affairs. This article investigates how and to what degree the use of social media has changed journalists’ practices in gathering political news. Moreover, it analyses how journalists describe politicians’ use of Twitter and how they reflexively conceive whether adjustments by those politicians to the media logic exist. To this end, the studies present results from 25 semi-structured interviews with Italian journalists occupying prominent roles within the Italian news organizations most important in terms of newspaper circulations and unique visitors to their websites. The research proves that mediatization is still an important framework within which to interpret practices in the new media environment.

The article investigates media organizations’ strategies to adapt to the new media ecology in which Twitter is renewing traditional news-production routines. Two main strategies are identified: a traditional approach aimed at one-way news dissemination, and a journalistic model that recasts the relationship with the audience and uses Twitter as a community building tool. It has been assumed that media outlets’ endeavours to gain centrality in the information system are associated with their ability in using the appropriate communication tools of Twitter and the implementation of strategies based on interaction with users.  Based on a comparative analysis of Twitter uses by newspapers in 31 countries, the study shows that the ability to manage the structural elements of the platform is widespread among media organizations. Concurrently, the relational strategy, i.e. the investment in community-building, although less widespread, is present in many countries and leads to an increase level of user involvement.