Dissertation, Santana (Final)
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1 2 3 4 5 CIVILITY, ANONYMITY AND THE BREAKDOWN OF A NEW PUBLIC SPHERE 6 7 8 9 10 11 by 12 ARTHUR D. SANTANA 13 14 15 16 17 18 A DISSERTATION 19 Presented to the School of Journalism and Communication 20 and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon 21 in partial fulfillment of the requirements 22 for the degree of 23 Doctor of Philosophy 24 25 June 2012 26 DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE 1 Student: Arthur D. Santana 2 Title: Civility, Anonymity and the Breakdown of a New Public Sphere 3 This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the 4 requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the School of Journalism and 5 Communication by: 6 7 John Russial Chair 8 Pat Curtin Member 9 Scott Maier Member 10 David Vázquez Outside Member 11 12 and 13 14 Kimberly Andrews Espy Vice President for Research and Innovation/Dean 15 of the Graduate School 16 17 Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School 18 19 Degree awarded June 2012 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 ii 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 © 2012 Arthur D. Santana 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 iii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT 1 2 Arthur D. Santana 3 Doctor of Philosophy 4 School of Journalism and Communication 5 June 2012 6 Title: Civility, Anonymity and the Breakdown of a New Public Sphere 7 8 Reader comment forums of online newspapers, a relatively new feature of online 9 journalism, have been called spaces of public deliberation. At their inception among large 10 newspapers just five years ago, the forums were heralded as a new way for the public to 11 advance public dialogue by sharing opinions in an unconstrained way, promoting the 12 democratic principles of the newspaper institution itself. Rampant incivility, however, 13 has since become one the forums’ chief defining characteristics. By content analyzing 14 comments from online newspapers that allow anonymity, this research confirms 15 anecdotal evidence from journalists that Latinos are regularly debased in the forums by 16 commenters following news on immigration. This study also compares the civility of 17 anonymous comments following news on the Tea Party movement, a non-racialized but 18 also controversial topic. Finally, civility is measured in the comments following news on 19 immigration from online newspapers that have disallowed anonymity. In all, more than 20 22,000 comments from nearly 200 news stories in more than a dozen online newspapers 21 were collected between 2010 and 2012, and a sample of 1,350 was coded. The analysis 22 shows that online newspaper discussion boards that allow anonymity and that follow 23 iv news about immigration predominantly contain comments by those who support tough 1 immigration laws and who express themselves with emotionally laden, uncivil comments 2 directed at Latinos. Similar discussion boards that disallow anonymity predominantly 3 contain comments by those who support tough immigration laws and who express 4 themselves with emotionally laden yet civil comments directed at Latinos. Overall, this 5 research demonstrates that a racialized topic is apt to draw more uncivil anonymous 6 comments than a non-racialized one and that removing anonymity elevates the level of 7 dialogue. Building on the theories of the public sphere, reduced cues in anonymity and 8 critical race theory, this paper demonstrates that in their new role in creating a new public 9 square of open discussion, newspapers are sometimes creating forums for hate speech 10 while also publishing content that is perpetuating negative portrayals of Latinos. Findings 11 reveal that a new public sphere created by online newspapers, meant to promote 12 democracy, is actually having the opposite effect for some minority groups. 13 14 v CURRICULUM VITAE 1 2 3 NAME OF AUTHOR: Arthur D. Santana 4 5 6 GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: 7 8 University of Oregon, Eugene 9 Columbia University, New York 10 University of Texas, Austin 11 12 13 DEGREES AWARDED: 14 15 Doctor of Philosophy, Communication and Society, University of Oregon 2012 16 Master of Science, Journalism, Columbia University 1996 17 Bachelor of Arts, English, University of Texas 1993 18 19 20 AREAS OF INTEREST: 21 22 Newspapers (print and online) 23 Online/participatory journalism 24 UGC (user-generated content) 25 Minorities in the media 26 27 28 PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: 29 30 Assistant city editor, San Antonio Express-News 31 San Antonio, TX, May 2005 — April 2008 32 33 Reporter, The Washington Post 34 Washington, D.C., Dec. 1999 — April 2005 35 36 Reporter, The Seattle Times 37 Seattle, WA, Oct. 1996 — Nov. 1999 38 39 Reporter, The Washington Post 40 Washington, D.C., June 1996 — Sept. 1996 41 42 Reporter, San Antonio Express-News 43 San Antonio, TX, Aug. 1993 — Aug. 1995 44 45 46 vi GRANTS, AWARDS AND HONORS: 1 2 Research grant, AEJMC Newspaper and Online News Division, Aug. 2011 3 4 Lorry I. Lokey Journalism Scholarship, University of Oregon, June 2011 5 6 Top student paper, AEJMC Minorities and Communication Division; St. Louis, 7 Aug. 2011, for “Pushed to the Periphery: Incivility in Online Newspaper Readers’ 8 Comments” 9 10 Top student paper, AEJMC Newspaper and Online News Division; Denver, Aug. 11 2010, for “Conversation or Cacophony: Newspaper Reporters’ Attitudes Toward Online 12 Readers’ Comments” 13 14 Kappa Tau Alpha, University of Oregon, inducted April 2010 15 16 Columbia Scholarship, University of Oregon, 2009 – 2011 17 18 Promising Scholar Award, University of Oregon, Fall 2008 19 20 Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association, for Public Service, for 2004 team 21 coverage about lead in drinking water series, The Washington Post 22 23 Finalist for 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for team coverage of the 9/11 24 terrorist attacks, The Washington Post 25 26 Society of Professional Journalists Pacific NW Excellence in Journalism, May 27 1999; Best of the West, long form feature writing, June 1999; National Association of 28 Hispanic Journalists Journalism Contest, print feature, July 1999 – for feature story 29 chronicling the path of a handgun, The Seattle Times, Feb. 1998 30 31 32 PUBLICATIONS: 33 34 Arthur D. Santana and John Russial, “Doing More with Less: How the Jobs of 35 Newspaper Photojournalists Have Changed,” Newspaper Research Journal 36 (forthcoming). 37 38 Arthur D. Santana, Randall M. Livingstone and Yoon Y. Cho, “Medium Matters: 39 Newsreaders' Recall and Engagement with Online and Print Newspapers,” Newspaper 40 Research Journal (forthcoming). 41 42 Arthur D. Santana, “The New Role of Bilingual Newspapers in Establishing and 43 Maintaining Social Group Identities among Latinos,” in Identity and Media: New 44 Agendas in Communication, eds. Dominic Lasorsa and America Rodriguez (New York, 45 NY: Routledge) (forthcoming). 46 47 vii Yoon Y. Cho, Arthur D. Santana and Randall M. Livingstone, “Advertising 1 Affinities: An Analysis of Reader Engagement Of Advertisements in Print and Online 2 News,” American Academy of Advertising Conference Proceedings 2012 (forthcoming). 3 4 Arthur D. Santana, “Online Readers’ Comments Represent New Opinion 5 Pipeline,” Newspaper Research Journal 32, no. 3 (2011). 6 7 John Russial and Arthur D. Santana, “Specialization Still Favored In Most 8 Newspaper Jobs,” Newspaper Research Journal 32, no. 3 (2011). 9 10 11 viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1 2 I wish to thank my committee members, especially Dr. John Russial, and their 3 contributions to this project. This research was supported in part by grants from the 4 Newspaper and Online News Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and 5 Mass Communication as well as the University of Oregon School of Journalism and 6 Communication. 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 ix 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 For Tami, Nathaniel, Norah and Will 9 10 11 12 x TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Chapter Page 2 3 I. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................1 4 Background ........................................................................................3 5 Focus of This Research ......................................................................6 6 Notes ..................................................................................................7 7 8 II. LITERATURE REVIEW ..........................................................................9 9 Public Sphere .....................................................................................9 10 Discursive Civility .............................................................................14 11 Making an Argument .........................................................................18 12 Anonymity .........................................................................................23 13 Media Portrayals of Immigration and Latinos ...................................26 14 Hypotheses and Research Questions .................................................34 15 Notes ..................................................................................................37 16 17 III. METHODS ..............................................................................................46 18 Part I — Anonymous Immigration ....................................................47 19 Part II — Anonymous Tea Party .......................................................51 20 Part III — Non-Anonymous Immigration .........................................54 21 Notes ..................................................................................................57 22 23 IV.