The (de)civilizing impact of an inclusive actor set in news articles on associated user debates

Dobbrick, Timo ; Jakob, Julia ; Wessler, Hartmut

URL:	https://dach21.ch/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/20210...
Dokumenttyp:	Konferenzveröffentlichung
Erscheinungsjahr:	2021
Buchtitel:	DACH 21 : #Kommunikation #(R)Evolution Zum Wandel der Kommunikation in der digitalen Gesellschaft, Dreiländertagung für Kommunikationswissenschaft DGPuK, ÖGK und SGKM, 7. - 9. April 2021, Zürich : book of abstracts
Seitenbereich:	65
Veranstaltungstitel:	DACH 21 - Dreiländertagung für Kommunikationswissenschaft
Veranstaltungsort:	Online
Veranstaltungsdatum:	07.-09.04.2021
Ort der Veröffentlichung:	Zürich
Verlag:	DACH 21
Sprache der Veröffentlichung:	Englisch
Einrichtung:	Philosophische Fakultät > Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft (Wessler 2007-)
Fachgebiet:	070 Nachrichtenmedien, Journalismus, Verlagswesen
Abstract:	Online incivility has found its way into the mainstream. Searching for strategies to counter this development, research has focused on the mitigating effects of moderation or user identification. When people comment on articles in the website comment sections or on the Facebook pages of media outlets, content-related properties of the news can influence the incivility of these discussions. This study is among the first to investigate how deliberative attributes of an article influence the style of user-generated debates. It asks whether the inclusion of diverse actors in an article triggers more "toxic outrage" in online discussions and which actors may have a moderating influence. The findings suggest that toxic outrage in user comments is driven specifically by political controversy in the article. Few types of actors actually have a moderating influence on the style of online debates. This is particularly unexpected for periphery actors such as civil society groups or citizens whose inclusion into political discourses is highly valued by deliberative theory.