Does It Matter Where You Read the News Story? Interaction of Incivility and News Frames in the Political Blogosphere

Abstract

The political blogosphere is replete with uncivil discussions and is apt to examine the influence of incivility on news frames. The present study brings in literature from incivility and framing effects and uses two experiments to examine the influence of incivility on news frames for democratic outcomes such as willingness to participate, online participation, openmindedness, and attitude certainty. Primary findings indicate the detrimental effects of incivility causing less openmindedness and more attitude certainty. At the same time, incivility causes more willingness to participate and online participation. More importantly, the findings demonstrate how incivility interacts with news frames. Implications for news framing effects in the social media landscape are discussed.

Seeing is Believing: Effects of Uncivil Online Debate on Political Polarization and Expectations of Deliberation

“…Consistent with deliberation theorists' arguments, recent studies revealed that exposure to uncivil political discourse produces negative emotions and attitudes toward the opposing side (Borah, 2014;Hwang, Borah, Namkoong, & Veenstra, 2008), suggesting that uncivil online discussion emphasizing antagonism between two partisan groups may erode individuals' expectation about reaching consensus through deliberation. Previous studies on intergroup conflict have also shown that as conflict between groups increases, group members tend to show negative perceptual biases toward out-group members (Brewer, 2007;Riek, Mania, & Gaertner, 2006) and increased inter-group differentiation (Forsyth, 1990).…”

“…Based upon a common theme in the definition of incivility in prior studies (Borah, 2014;Brooks & Geer, 2007;Mutz & Reeves, 2005;Sobieraj & Berry 2011), we define incivility in political discussion as an extreme form of polarized discussion in which discussion participants use disrespectful statements or attacks which clearly demonstrate disrespect or insult toward an opposing political party or its members.…”

Online and Uncivil? Patterns and Determinants of Incivility in Newspaper Website Comments

“…At the same time, if one believes that any reaction is better than no reaction at all, incivility might be considered a way to increase readers' involvement in the discussion (cf. Borah, ). Clicking an icon to register support or opposition is clearly a limited means of involving oneself in a discussion, but it is nonetheless a more tangible means of involvement than is doing nothing.…”

“…Several aspects of the definition adopted in this project are noteworthy. In focusing on disrespect, we align ourselves with the majority of the scholarship in this area (e.g., Anderson, Brossard, Scheufele, Xenos, & Ladwig, 2013;Borah, 2012;Carter, 1998;Papacharissi, 2004;Sapiro, 1999). As Brooks and Geer (2007) explain in reviewing different conceptualizations, "The concept of civility seems to invariably involve some notion of mutual respect" (p. 4).…”

“…Our second question extends research on incivility by considering it not as an independent variable-the norm in this body of research (e.g., Anderson et al, 2013;Borah, 2012;Brooks & Geer, 2007)-but instead as a dependent variable that might be linked to the characteristics of an individual participant in an online discussion or the media content to which that individual is exposed. Specifically, we ask if incivility is primarily habitual (always present regardless of external factors) or contextual (associated with specific external factors) in discussions of online newspaper articles.…”