Journalistic Concern about Uncivil Political Talk in Digital News Media

Abstract

Many academics, politicians, and journalists have spoken and written about civility in public discourse and what they think should be done about it. This article investigates what journalists perceive as the forces affecting uncivil, opinionated commentary in news, what their perceptions are of the effects of this shift on audiences and political culture, and how journalists think uncivil political talk affects journalists’ roles and authority in society. This is accomplished through a qualitative textual analysis of intramedia discussion on journalism organizations’ Web sites, journalism blogs, and news Web sites from the past decade. The analysis revealed that most, but not all, of the journalistic writing examined about civility and incivility expressed concern for incivility, a need for improvement, and a belief that journalists or their organizations are responsible for keeping things civil on their own sites. Analysis of journalists’ articles also revealed interest in academic research about civility, and some of the many ways journalists are dealing with incivility online are based on academic research. The study’s findings provide evidence of journalists’ perceptions of civility in digital news, which inform the arguments put forth by advocates for interventions to improve the quality of public political discourse.