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RESEARCH PRODUCT
Not Funny? The Effects of Factual Versus Sarcastic Journalistic Responses to Uncivil User Comments
Pablo JostMarc Ziegelesubject
Linguistics and LanguageOnline participationCommunicationmedia_common.quotation_subject05 social sciences050801 communication & media studies050109 social psychologyAdvertisingModerationLanguage and LinguisticsIncivility0508 media and communicationsInteractivityCredibility0501 psychology and cognitive sciencesQuality (business)Affect (linguistics)PsychologySocial psychologymedia_commondescription
Incivility in user comments on news websites has been discussed as a significant problem of online participation. Previous research suggests that news outlets should tackle this problem by interactively moderating uncivil postings and asking their authors to discuss more civilized. We argue that this kind of interactive comment moderation as well as different response styles to uncivil comments (i.e., factual vs. sarcastic) differently affect observers’ evaluations of the discussion atmosphere, the credibility of the news outlet, the quality of its stories, and ultimately observers’ willingness to participate in the discussions. Results from an online experiment show that factual responses to uncivil comments indirectly increase participation rates by suggesting a deliberative discussion atmosphere. In contrast, sarcastic responses indirectly deteriorate participation rates due to a decrease in the credibility of the news outlet and the quality of its stories. Sarcastic responses however increase the entertainment value of the discussions.
year | journal | country | edition | language |
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2016-10-05 | Communication Research |