Respect and Disrespect in Deliberation Across the Networked Media Environment: Examining Multiple Paths of Political Talk

Abstract

There is extensive research dedicated to civility in online deliberation, but empirical studies on mutual respect are still scarce. By adopting a systemic approach to deliberation, this study identifies different targets of disrespect (conversation partners, arguments, actors and groups involved in a certain conflict, profanity without a clear target), and investigates their relations with deliberation in different online contexts. This paper argues that the nature of digital affordances related to anonymity and homophily influences the expression of foul language, but not as significantly as was originally assumed. Analysis reveals that online social norms help to explain the configuration of interactions and practices of reasoning together in YouTube, blogs, and Facebook; and the extent to which profanity affects justification and reciprocity.