News media hate losing control of the narrative. They prefer to lecture us on what is acceptable to say.
Yahoo: Research this year by University of Houston professor Arthur Santana found anonymous comments on online news sites can often bring out the vilest of views, particularly on hot topics such as immigration.
– ‘Locusts, vermin’ –
“Often the targets of the incivility are marginalized groups, including racial minorities,” Santana said in the Newspaper Research Journal.
Santana found readers referred to immigrants as “cockroaches, locusts, scumbags, rats, bums, buzzards, blood-sucking leeches, vermin, slime, dogs, brown invaders, wetbacks,” among others.
Santana said that newspapers “have expressed frustration with rampant incivility and ad hominem attacks in their commenting forums,” but may also be hurting their own reputations by becoming a place for mud-slinging.
The problem is not limited to US news sites: “flame wars” have forced the shutdown of comments on South Africa’s largest online news publisher 24.com and Independent Online has done the same.
Controlling online forums can be especially tricky in countries where news organizations may be held liable for defaming content from readers.
Some news organizations have sought to clamp down on incivility by requiring registration and banning anonymity.
– Facebook as a tool? –
One tool is from Facebook, whose plug-in verifies the identity of those who post comments, requiring people to use their real names.
Some evidence indicates the Facebook platform and other tools have helped the tone.
A 2013 University of Kent study found that by making users “accountable,” the Facebook system makes them “less likely to engage in uncivil discussion.”
