Beyond incivility: understanding patterns of uncivil and intolerant discourse in online political talk

Rossini, P. (2022) Beyond incivility: understanding patterns of uncivil and intolerant discourse in online political talk. Communication Research, 49(3), pp. 399-425. (doi: 10.1177/0093650220921314)

Abstract

This article takes up the popular argument that much online discussion is toxic and hence harmful to democracy, and argues that the pervasiveness of incivility is not incompatible with democratically relevant political talk. Instead of focusing on the tone of political talk, scholars interested in understanding the extent to which digital platforms threaten democratic values should focus on expressions of intolerance. I demonstrate the validity of this conceptual model by investigating the discursive and contextual features associated with incivility and intolerance online in the context of public comments in two different platforms—news websites and Facebook. Results show that incivility and intolerance occur in meaningfully different discussion settings. Whereas incivility is associated with features that reveal meaningful discursive engagement, such as justified opinion expression and engagement with disagreement, intolerance is likely to occur in homogeneous discussions about minorities and civil society—exactly when it can hurt democracy the most.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Rossini, Dr Patricia
• Authors: Rossini, P.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Politics
• Journal Name: Communication Research
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• ISSN: 0093-6502
• ISSN (Online): 1552-3810
• Published Online: 26 May 2020
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © The Author(s) 2020
• First Published: First published in Communication Research 49(3):399-425
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy