Posted on 06/30/2014 2:14:40 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Have you ever really dug into the comments section below a controversial news article? The correct answer is "No, I am not a crazy person," but if you have you'll know that it's a Hobbesian netherworld down there, and a new study in Journal of Communication puts some numbers behind the all-caps hysterics.
Researchers from the Universities of Utah and Arizona examined more than 6,400 comments posted on the website of the Arizona Daily Star (those poor, poor researchers ... ) and found, in a result unlikely to shock anyone who has been called an OBAMABOT or RETHUGLICAN by a 12-year-old on the other side of the country, that we do not tend to interact with each other in a kindly manner online: Overall, one in five comments were not civil, but that number was often higher for more controversial subjects.
To the press release:
"We tracked six different kinds of uncivil language, but name-calling was far and away the most common," said Kevin Coe, assistant professor of communication at the University of Utah and one of the study's authors. "Many people just can't seem to avoid the impulse to go after someone else."
The study also showed that these types of commenters do not fit the stereotype of a few angry individuals who spend hours at their computers blasting others and making baseless claims. In fact, incivility was more common among infrequent commenters. Equally surprising, uncivil commenters were just as likely to use evidence in support of their claims as were the more respectful individuals.
As might be expected, stories that focused on well-known leaders with clear partisan positions garnered more impolite comments. In stories that quoted President Barack Obama, for example, nearly 1 in 3 comments were uncivil.
Disrespectful comments also tended to spike in discussions about weightier issues, such as politics, the economy, crime and taxes. The one exception to this trend was sports articles, which generated the highest percentage of these types of comments.
But buried in all the trolly trollness is a small, glittering kernel of humanity: "When one commenter was directly replying to another commenter, they were more likely to be courteous."
So it's almost as though being reminded that you're interacting with another human can help make you more civil online. Strange! And while things may look bleak, there are a growing number of troll-suppression solutions, some of which I wrote about a couple of years ago.
We welcome your thoughts below.
I have NEVER posted anything but derogatory things about the fraud.
They can bite me.
“I have been threatened with suspension for stuff infinitely milder than what is being posted about Omugabe now”
Too bad for you, freepers with classy names are held to higher standards.
Obamamamagumby! Now that’s gonna short-dick *every* *cannibal* in the *Congo*.
See, you need a honky tonk name to re-mojosize yo bad sef.
Why not change it to, say, The Juice Loosener, or MoFo?
Dang, Web must be her daddy...
And I mean all that in the nicest possible way.
You reap what you sow and odumbo has done a really bad job of sowing good seeds.
Why be civil, the democrats sure are not civil. Give them what they deserve. Extreme scorn.
Clown Prince deserves no civility for the crimes he daily commits against the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Rule of Law. The Crown Fool only deserves derision, mockery and ridicule. Beyond that he deserves prison and exile.
Calling Obama a communist traitor, coward, closet queen, Moslem worshipping dhimmi, economic illiterate, environmental wacko, “constitutional law professor” (NOT), a King living high on the taxpayer, Mr. Wookie, crackhead, and Obama The Destroyer (of America) are not “uncivil” terms.
They are terms of endearment, and also terms of the TRUTH.
Professor: Put that in your study and shove it.
I’m running for the least PC person in America. Vote for me. I need love (but cash, checks or money orders will also do)!
LOL.
Were they concerned about the comments online about president Bush?
a civil person gets a civil response, Obama is not a civil person.
After you call this POS a POS one must apologize to excrement.
I would bet that more likely the numbers are closer to 70% to 80% of comments are not civil.
However many of the uncivil comments are probably deleted by moderators before you they are seen.
Just a third?
Gee. You really shouldn’t hold back. It’s bad for your health to repress.
There’s a difference between being gracious and in denial. </s>
I’m Spartacus!
A Third of Online Comments About Obama Aren’t Civil
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
And why should they be civil? Obama has earned uncivil commentary, by his own conduct.
Hell, I wouldn’t even cross the street to attend his funeral.
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