Abstract
Swearing, the use of taboo languages tagged with a high level of emotional arousal, has become commonplace in contemporary political culture. The current study attempts to understand the ways in which swearing influences citizen-to-citizen news commenting online. Based on a large corpus of the 2-month user comments from 26 news websites in South Korea, the study examines swearing effects as well as its interplay with anonymity on garnering public attention and shaping other users’ perceptions of the comments. Findings suggest that swearing generally has a positive effect on increasing user attention to comments as well as gaining other users’ approvals. Comparisons between political and nonpolitical topics further suggest that swearing effect on gaining public attention is particularly prominent for political discussions. In contrast, the magnitude of change toward positive valence in public perception to comments is much greater for nonpolitical topics than for politics. From the findings, we conclude that an acceptable degree of swearing norms in online discussions vary across news topical arenas. The results also lead to discussions about the possibility of like-minded exposure to political comments as a default condition for online discussions. Finally, the study highlights the role of high-arousal emotions in shaping discursive participation in contemporary networked sociodigital environment.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 84-102 |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| Journal | Social Science Computer Review |
| Volume | 35 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Feb 1 2017 |
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Keywords
- anonymity
- discursive participation
- emotions in politics
- incivility
- online comments
- profanity
- swearing
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Sciences(all)
- Computer Science Applications
- Library and Information Sciences
- Law
Cite this
Swearing Effects on Citizen-to-Citizen Commenting Online : A Large-Scale Exploration of Political Versus Nonpolitical Online News Sites. / Kwon, Kyounghee; Cho, Daegon.
In: Social Science Computer Review, Vol. 35, No. 1, 01.02.2017, p. 84-102.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Swearing Effects on Citizen-to-Citizen Commenting Online
T2 - A Large-Scale Exploration of Political Versus Nonpolitical Online News Sites
AU - Kwon, Kyounghee
AU - Cho, Daegon
PY - 2017/2/1
Y1 - 2017/2/1
N2 - Swearing, the use of taboo languages tagged with a high level of emotional arousal, has become commonplace in contemporary political culture. The current study attempts to understand the ways in which swearing influences citizen-to-citizen news commenting online. Based on a large corpus of the 2-month user comments from 26 news websites in South Korea, the study examines swearing effects as well as its interplay with anonymity on garnering public attention and shaping other users’ perceptions of the comments. Findings suggest that swearing generally has a positive effect on increasing user attention to comments as well as gaining other users’ approvals. Comparisons between political and nonpolitical topics further suggest that swearing effect on gaining public attention is particularly prominent for political discussions. In contrast, the magnitude of change toward positive valence in public perception to comments is much greater for nonpolitical topics than for politics. From the findings, we conclude that an acceptable degree of swearing norms in online discussions vary across news topical arenas. The results also lead to discussions about the possibility of like-minded exposure to political comments as a default condition for online discussions. Finally, the study highlights the role of high-arousal emotions in shaping discursive participation in contemporary networked sociodigital environment.
AB - Swearing, the use of taboo languages tagged with a high level of emotional arousal, has become commonplace in contemporary political culture. The current study attempts to understand the ways in which swearing influences citizen-to-citizen news commenting online. Based on a large corpus of the 2-month user comments from 26 news websites in South Korea, the study examines swearing effects as well as its interplay with anonymity on garnering public attention and shaping other users’ perceptions of the comments. Findings suggest that swearing generally has a positive effect on increasing user attention to comments as well as gaining other users’ approvals. Comparisons between political and nonpolitical topics further suggest that swearing effect on gaining public attention is particularly prominent for political discussions. In contrast, the magnitude of change toward positive valence in public perception to comments is much greater for nonpolitical topics than for politics. From the findings, we conclude that an acceptable degree of swearing norms in online discussions vary across news topical arenas. The results also lead to discussions about the possibility of like-minded exposure to political comments as a default condition for online discussions. Finally, the study highlights the role of high-arousal emotions in shaping discursive participation in contemporary networked sociodigital environment.
KW - anonymity
KW - discursive participation
KW - emotions in politics
KW - incivility
KW - online comments
KW - profanity
KW - swearing
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85008703753&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85008703753&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0894439315602664
DO - 10.1177/0894439315602664
M3 - Article
VL - 35
SP - 84
EP - 102
JO - Social Science Computer Review
JF - Social Science Computer Review
SN - 0894-4393
IS - 1
ER -