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Public Discourse in Online Environments. Contributions to description, measurement and communication behavior change in political online ecosystems

  • The public discourse is an essential element of democracy. Today, political information consumption is largely mediated through digital technologies and important political discussions have moved to online platforms. This dissertation examines different elements and dynamics of the online public discourse within five research articles. First, a systematic review synthesizes evidence on the broader relationship between digital media and democracy, which highly depends on political context. While most beneficial effects of information access and political participation can be found in autocratic regimes and emerging democracies, there is more reason for concern in established democracies where negative effects on political trust, populism and polarization accumulate. Next, using digital trace data combined with survey data to zoom into the political information ecosystem in Germany, I find that it consists of far more than news media, but that in-depth political discussions also take place in seemingly unpolitical niches of the internet. While the user base of online public broadcasting consists of a comparably narrow audience, most citizens consume political content via mainstream information hubs that can provide a common basis for public discourse. The most predictive variable for selection into political information consumption is political knowledge, not partisanship. However, people who actively write comments online show more extreme political opinions, highlighting differences between active and passive political engagement online. This differential selection pattern is further mirrored in the final project, where high levels of social media activity also relate to stronger comment toxicity. An agenda to reduce online toxicity requires an efficient method to measure the quality of online discussions. Using discussion data from Reddit, I compare simple computational measures to manual content coding and find that an automated toxicity classifier combined with the length of comments corresponds to established indicators of deliberative quality. I then develop a preemptive strategy with the aim to reduce toxicity in political discussions among highly active social media users. Testing various behavioral interventions, I find that simple ‘nudges’ in the user interface do not reduce the toxicity of comments. However, mixed findings on a more complex ‘boosting’ intervention, explaining the role of empathy and perspective taking for political discussions, evince opportunities to open up online public discourse for those who may otherwise be silenced by high levels of toxicity. Especially when combined with established approaches of survey methodology and content analysis, computational social science commands many tools to map elements and dynamics of the online public discourse from a holistic perspective. This does not only bear potential to reconnect theoretical ideals of the public sphere with real life online, but it also enables the generation of evidence for policymakers and civil society to keep up with the pace of the fast moving target of digital media.

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Metadaten
Document Type:Doctoral Thesis
Language:English
Author(s):Lisa Oswald
Advisor:Simon Munzert, Ralph Hertwig, Andrew Guess
Hertie Collections (Serial Number):Dissertations submitted to the Hertie School (08/2023)
Publication year:2023
Publishing Institution:Hertie School
Granting Institution:Hertie School
Thesis date:2023/08/28
Number pages:266
DOI:https://doi.org/10.48462/opus4-5066
Release Date:2023/09/07
Notes:
List of publications

1. Lorenz-Spreen, P., Oswald, L., Lewandowsky, S., & Hertwig, R. (2023). A systematic review of worldwide causal and correlational evidence on digital media and democracy. Nature Human Behaviour, 7(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-01460-1

2. Oswald, L. (2022). More than news! Mapping the deliberative potential of a political online ecosystem with digital trace data. SocArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/68udg

3. Oswald, L., Munzert, S., Barberá, P., Guess, A., & Yang, J. (2022). Beyond the tip of the iceberg? Exploring characteristics of the online public with digital trace data. SocArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/yfmzh

4. Oswald, L. (2022). Automating the analysis of online deliberation? A comparison of manual and computational measures applied to climate change discussions. SocArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/qmzwx

5. Oswald, L. (2023). Effects of preemptive empathy interventions on reply toxicity among highly active social media users. SocArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/evdxy
Notes:
Shelf mark: 2023D008 + 2023D008+1
Hertie School Research:Publications PhD Researchers
Licence of document (German):Creative Commons - CC BY - 4.0 International
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