EXPERIENCES OF REPERCUSSIONS FROM PARTICIPATION IN ONLINE DEBATE

Anders Sundnes Løvlie, Karoline Andrea Ihlebæk

Research output: Contribution to conference - NOT published in proceeding or journalConference abstract for conferenceResearchpeer-review

Abstract

Based on data from a survey among contributors (n=3470) to the online comments sections of four Norwegian newspapers, we investigate the following research question: How do contributors to online comments sections in newspaper websites describe their experiences of repercussions from participation in debates? Through analysis of two survey questions asking respondents whether they have experienced problems in everyday life after participating in online comments, we find that women to a larger degree report such problems. However, when studying the types of problems reported, we fail to replicate earlier findings about gender differences associated with different types of problems. Instead, we find a surprising dominance of relatively inconsequential issues, leading to a discussion about the communicative competencies of participants, and the challenge in facilitating online debate for people with limited knowledge and experience about what kind of repercussions to expect when posting controversial opinions in a public forum.
Original languageEnglish
Publication date8 Oct 2016
Publication statusPublished - 8 Oct 2016
EventAssociation of Internet Researchers' Annual Conference: Internet Rules - Humboldt-Universität, Berlin, Germany
Duration: 5 Oct 20168 Oct 2016
Conference number: 17
http://aoir.org/aoir2016/

Conference

ConferenceAssociation of Internet Researchers' Annual Conference
Number17
LocationHumboldt-Universität
Country/TerritoryGermany
CityBerlin
Period05/10/201608/10/2016
Internet address

Keywords

  • online comments
  • newspaper websites
  • gender differences
  • repercussions
  • communicative competencies

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