Fewer people, more flames: How pre-existing beliefs and volume of negative comments impact online news readers’ verbal aggression

Sarcastic or Assertive: How Should Brands Reply to Consumers’ Uncivil Comments on Social Media in the Context of Brand Activism?

“…Finally, we clarify the contradictory findings in the literature on how individuals supportive of a cause react to aggressiveness toward those (in our case, brands) promoting a stance on that cause (Becker and Barreto 2014; Martinez et al 2017). For example, evidence that individuals in a bystander situation that are highly involved with an issue (e.g., victims of prejudice or their allies) tend to favor non-hostile assertive responses (Hyers 2010; Martinez et al 2017) contradicts the findings that individuals exposed to negative online comments disparaging their point of view tend to favor aggressive words (Petit, Li, and Ali 2020). Our results show the conditional effect of the interaction between perceived aggressiveness and support for a brand's stance (moderated mediation effect) on consumer attitudes toward the brand, meaning that for those customers who support the brand's stance, the negative effect of aggressiveness in the sarcastic reply (compared to the assertive reply) on the attitude toward the brand is mitigated.…”

“…However, no research has empirically investigated how brands engaged in online activism should respond to consumer incivility. Given the intensification of aggressiveness and incivility in online discussions in an increasingly polarized society (Anderson et al 2014; Petit, Li, and Ali 2020), our work originally examines customer-to-brand online incivility and how brands reply to it in terms of their communication tone. We add to the understanding of how brands can take a stand on controversial causes that may trigger uncivil comments without inducing any impairment to customers’ willingness to engage in constructive online debate or to the brand's reputation.…”

“…As the number of people using social media is projected to increase from 3.6 billion in 2021 to 4.41 billion in 2025 (Statista 2021), brands are increasingly using these platforms to communicate with their customers on different matters, including their activism. However, brand activism on social media fosters conditions for incivility, since differences of opinion may encourage individuals to use aggressive language to express their viewpoints rather than engaging in civil discourse (Petit, Li, and Ali 2020; Ziegele and Jost 2020). Incivility may include hostile or offensive comments made by dissatisfied or offended consumers directed toward a brand's position on a cause, toward the brand itself, and toward other consumers who interact with the brand, all in the plain sight of other Internet users observing the interaction.…”

Feature Discrimination of News Based on Canopy and KMGC-Search Clustering

“…The news leaves a great impact [1] on the thoughts of the people because news presents those things of the world that are hidden from the local people [2]. It has the power to change the perspective and preferences of the people [3] that are very knowledgeable to gain information and to get updates about the changes in the world.…”

“…Sent 1. tv future in the hands of viewers with home theatre systems plasma high-definition tvs and digital video recorders moving into the living room the way people watch tv will be radically different in five years time.trend of freeing up multimedia so that people can watch what they want when they want.…”