Browsing by Subject "Incivility"
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Item The instability of incivility : how news frames and citizen perceptions shape conflict in American politics(2013-12) Muddiman, Ashley Rae; Stroud, Natalie JominiPoliticians and media elites have been calling for a return to civility in United States politics, and the vast majority of citizens agree that civility is necessary for a strong democracy. Yet incivility is an ever-present and misunderstood part of politics. In my dissertation, I focus on news, politics, and incivility by asking three questions. First, to what extent does news coverage portray political conflict as uncivil? Second, what political behaviors do citizens perceive as uncivil? Finally, how does news that portrays politics as uncivil affect citizens? I used a mixed method approach to answer these questions. I, first, conducted a content analysis of news surrounding four high-conflict political events to determine whether two conflict frames (interpersonal-level and public-level conflict) emerged. Second, I conducted two experiments and drew from social judgment theory to determine whether citizens perceived multiple types of incivility and whether their partisanship influenced how acceptable they found political behaviors to be. In a final experiment, I tested whether exposure to mediated conflict frames prompted perceptions of incivility from citizens and affected their reactions to politics. This project makes clear that news coverage of conflict emphasizes incivility and negatively affects citizens. Media elites shape political conflict using interpersonal-level and public-level conflict frames. Citizens perceive both types of conflict, as well, and tend to think that likeminded partisans are behaving appropriately while counter-attitudinal partisans are behaving badly. Finally, and importantly, the coverage of political conflict affects citizens in troublesome ways. Particularly when both types of conflict frames are present in the news, citizens feel more anxiety and aversion, have decreased levels of favorability toward political institutions, and think of political arguments in partisan ways. Overall, I conclude that incivility is not stable. Instead, incivility is a two-dimensional concept that is shaped by the media, perceived by citizens, and advanced by partisans. By recognizing these dimensions of incivility, researchers may find new and important effects of incivility, and people interested in ridding politics of incivility may be more successful by beginning with the recognition that what is uncivil to one person is not always uncivil to another.Item Stress in tenure-track and non-tenure-track faculty : what we know and where we are going(2016-05) Harbison, Brooks Robert; McCarthy, Christopher J.; Rude, StephanieA great deal of research has over the last fifty years has examined chronic stress in the workplace across numerous vocations. Relatively little has been studied in the context of university faculty, and even less still has been examined in non-tenure track faculty (NTTF), individuals who seek academic work contingently and fill teaching, supervising, researching, and mentoring roles. This report outlines the extant knowledge on chronic stress in university faculty, ultimately focusing on the experiences of NTTF. Research into professor stress in the following domains are outlined: workplace factors, multicultural and sexual minority concerns, gender, and disparities in treatment and payment. Additional stress factors may affect NTTF that are not experienced by all university professors, such as perceived social status (PSS), workplace isolation, and incivility from students. Exploratory research into and implications of NTTF stress are discussed, and future research directions and possible clinical interventions for NTTF stress are suggested.Item Us vs. them : online incivility, black sheep effect, and more(2016-05) Kim, Ji won; Coleman, Renita; Stroud, Natalie; Chen, Gina; McCombs, Maxwell; Lasorsa, DominicThis dissertation investigated how an individual’s political identity as a partisan leads to incivility among others who participate in online news comment board discussions. In particular, this dissertation focused on how responses to uncivil comments differ when the uncivil comments are made by in-group members who share the same partisanship in contrast to situations when uncivil comments originate from out-group members whose political identities are in opposition. Specifically, it explored whether, why, and how uncivil comments of in-group member stimulate the feeling of vicarious shame that, in turn, leads to different perceptual, attitudinal, and behavioral responses among those who observe the uncivil expressions. Furthermore, this study examined how the effects of political identity on incivility are moderated by the strength of group identity as well as by social influence exerted via “recommendations” in response to uncivil. Given these goals, two experimental studies were conducted to investigate conditions and mechanisms that underlie the effects of uncivil expressions enacted by ingroup members as well as out-group members, based on several sequential mediation models that were developed for this study. Results of the both studies provided strong support for in-group favoritism whereby participants were more lenient in judging uncivil comments and uncivil commenters when they were associated with their own group. Study 1 further showed that this tendency was stronger when group identity of participants was stronger. Results of neither study showed support for the black sheep effect. Nevertheless, a high level of vicarious shame was observed when individuals witnessed uncivil comments coming from in-group members that, in turn, encouraged participants to engage in two types of coping strategies: situation-reparation and situation-avoidance. However, no evidence for social influence was found. Overall, findings of this research contribute to development of a big picture perspective of online incivility and suggest ways that civil and healthy online discussions may be promoted in the future.Item Vitriolic voices : political candidates and the incivility gender gap online(2015-05) Cardona, Arielle M.; Stroud, Natalie Jomini; Jarvis, Sharon EThe advent and diffusion of many Internet technologies have inspired the possibility of a new, Habermasian, online public sphere. Social networking sites are one of these potential spaces -- the free and open communication among users allows for a generally unmediated message flow that could help to foster ideal deliberative discussion. Of particular concern for the reality of such a space, however, is the troubling amount of incivility online, especially toward groups traditionally disenfranchised in the public sphere such as women. Although scholars have looked at the presence of incivility within comment sections, scant research has studied incivility on social networking websites, whether political context affects the presence of incivility, or how incivility differs by gender. This thesis applies a content analysis of Twitter @-replies toward male and female gubernatorial and Senate candidates to understand not only differences in the amount of incivility, but the context of such communication. The findings suggest that women receive more uncivil communication than men. Even when controlling for various campaign characteristics, Democratic women are more likely than Republican women to receive uncivil replies, and male authors are more likely than female authors be uncivil online. The online public sphere appears to present a new set of challenges for female candidates, and gender must continue to remain a variable in studies moving forward.