Disrespect in Online Deliberation: Inducing Factors and Democratic Potentials

Abstract

Scholars of deliberation conceive of respect as a key component of reasoned democratic exchange. However, disrespect abounds in public debates, especially in contemporary online discussions. This article investigates the factors that foster disrespect in online debates. It also considers whether the existence of some disrespectful utterances may actually contribute to deliberation. After all, in certain situations, some types of disrespect may be useful to public debate to the extent that they may induce reciprocity and engender discursive mobilization. To that end, the article analyzes 1,281 comments about same-sex marriage in Brazil, which were posted on YouTube and other news websites. The analysis points to: (1) a relationship between disrespect and one specific type of reciprocity; (2) an association between disrespect and anonymity; and (3) a correlation between disrespect and the use of religious frames. These results suggest: (1) the importance of disaggregating variables usually associated with "good deliberation"; (2) the relationship between reciprocity and respect; (3) the protection offered by digital anonymity with respect to angry expression; and (4) the tension, first noted by Papacharissi (2004), between politeness and incivility.

Por que o termo feminicídio incomoda tanto? um estudo de caso de comentários de posts da página do Facebook do Jornal O Globo

“…4 Este comentário é uma resposta a outro que questionava o uso do termo feminicídio, argumentando que homens morrem mais. 5 Este comentário foi codificado como enquadrando o crime como homicídio comum, uma vez que a pessoa não faz nenhum tipo de referência explícita ao feminicídio e nem ao fato de o agressor ser um homem e a vítima uma mulher. É um comentário que aborda o crime como algo isolado.…”

“…"Homem Sem Caráter, ninguém tem esse direito, de parar a vida de ninguém, o pai cria uma filha com todo amor e carinho, pra vim um lixo humano e tirar a vida de uma filha, esse lixo tem ser fuzilado sem piedade". 5 menos graves, inclusive pelas instâncias judiciais (Pasinato, 2011). O fato de esses crimes serem tratados como casos isolados e passionais os liga a argumentos que questionam -até que ponto deve-se interferir na esfera privada‖.…”

Research Methods in Deliberative Democracy

“…As previously argued, frame analysis can help deliberative scholars in diverse ways. Some have studied discursive processes to identify how certain frames may promote deliberative values such as inclusiveness and civility (Rinke et al 2013;Sarmento and Mendonça 2016). Others have employed it to comprehend the enactment of power relations in participatory experiments (e.g.…”

Conversações políticas e midiatização no Facebook: interações e conflitos a partir dos comentários sobre as ações da Frente Parlamentar Evangélica

“…As highlighted by Sarmento and Mendonça (2016), in online conversations, respect, rationality and reflexivity compete with political behaviors that frequently aim to collaborate with like-minded others in a way of defending specific ideological goals and establishing borders from the outsiders. This kind of political action cannot be considered as inferior to balanced reciprocal justification aiming understanding.…”

“…Under a more optimistic perspective, Sarmento and Mendonça (2016) affirm that even disrespect to incivility presented in polarized conversations configure a type of reciprocity that, even though not yet privileging a careful and profound listening, it offers us new and valuable moral clues about how a group self-values itself by depreciating other, which uncovers usually non thematized and implicit framings of judgment, founded upon a moral economy (FASSIN, 2015) which is the core of the debate, its logics, rationalities and affections. Therefore, the disrespect, the emergence in exchanges, provides us with a singular opportunity of studying the production, circulation and appropriation of values and affections about a matter.…”