JITP 2011 Sponsors

The Third Annual Journal of Information Technology & Politics Conference
May 16 & 17, 2011 – University of Washington - Seattle, WA

JITP 2011 Poster Presenter: Abe Gong, University of Michigan

Title: "Why do bloggers shout? Predicting civility in political blog posts"           

Abe Gong is a third-year public policy and political science PhD student at the University of Michigan, studying political communication broadly writ. His buzzword interests include public opinion, campaigns and elections, media, and (wild card:) education reform

Abstract: Scholars, journalists, and everyday citizens are increasingly concerned with civility -- and incivility -- in public discourse. In this paper, I combine qualitative, quantitative, and computational methods to explore the causes of incivility in the political blogosphere. Using a random sample of nearly 1,000 political blogs, I survey bloggers and construct a panel of over 250,000 blog posts. Partially automated content analysis of these posts allows me to examine the causal effect of ideology, political engagement, partisanship, demographics, and media incentive structures on multiple measures of civility (Respect for others; emotional and factual content; appeals to anger, fear, and violence; and self versus common interests). This study has implications for theories of political participation, democratic discourse, media studies, and the social psychology of group conflict.
 

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