University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations Dissertations and Theses Winter March 2015 Democratic Potential For a Multiplicity of Public Spaces: A Content Analysis of Media-Hosted Discussion Boards Bryan M. Baldwin University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2 Part of the Communication Technology and New Media Commons, Mass Communication Commons, and the Speech and Rhetorical Studies Commons Recommended Citation Baldwin, Bryan M., "Democratic Potential For a Multiplicity of Public Spaces: A Content Analysis of Media- Hosted Discussion Boards" (2015). Doctoral Dissertations. 282. https://doi.org/10.7275/6460934.0 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2/282 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations and Theses at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. 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DEMOCRATIC POTENTIAL FOR A MULTIPLICITY OF PUBLIC SPACES: A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF MEDIA-HOSTED DISCUSSION BOARDS A Dissertation Presented by BRYAN MATHEW BALDWIN Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY February 2015 Department of Communication © Copyright by Bryan Mathew Baldwin 2015 All Rights Reserved DEMOCRATIC POTENTIAL FOR A MULTIPLICITY OF PUBLIC SPACES: A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF MEDIA-HOSTED DISCUSSION BOARDS A Dissertation Presented by BRYAN MATHEW BALDWIN Approved as to style and content by: ______________________________________ Jarice Hanson, Chair ______________________________________ Erica Scharrer, Member ______________________________________ Jane Fountain, Outside Member ___________________________________ Erica Scharrer, Department Chair Communication DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my dear friend and colleague, the late Dr. Darlene Costa-Brown, who showed me, by the sheer power of her own example, just how enriching and emancipating faith in oneself can be. From some far off place she continues to challenge how I think, inspires me to embrace love in my heart, and motivates me to live a life of no regrets. And, just as all big sisters should, she still manages to kick my butt every now and then. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Doctoral dissertation committees often get a bad rap for being places of political infighting and hidden – or not-so-hidden – academic agendas. I was extraordinarily fortunate to have been light years away from such a reality. My committee was not only extremely supportive of my scholarly endeavor and chockfull of guidance, inspiration and open-mindedness, but they also set an amazing (and dare I say, refreshing) tone that insisted upon collegiality and relished a wide array of perspectives. As this study, at its core, embraces the power of multiplicity, I would be remiss if I did not express my gratitude to each of them for allowing me to wander through, and find connective tissue among, an assortment of (and at times, seemingly quite disparate) scholarly traditions. I am indebted to the committee chair, Dr. Jarice Hanson, for her extraordinarily steady support and utterly limitless amounts of patience with me as this work endured so many planned and unplanned fits and starts. Whether it was a kind email, a gentle nudge or just the offering of a different way of looking at things, Jarice always knew just what to do to restart my brain. Dr. Erica Scharrer, beyond being one of the downright nicest human beings I have ever met, was tremendously helpful in her suggestions of how I could marry this work’s underlying mission with an appropriate methodology. As the outside member of the committee, Dr. Jane Fountain of the Department of Political Science and National Center for Digital Government was exceedingly generous with her already scarce time and made invaluable contributions in helping me to formulate the initial prospectus and polish the final draft. I was doubly fortunate to have two intellectual homes throughout this journey: the University of Massachusetts and Bridgewater State University. Though at times I wished v the physical distance between them could have been less, my Bridgewater family has been nothing short of spectacular in hoisting me upon their shoulders and reminding that there would be light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. President Dana Mohler-Faria was ceaseless both with his encouragement and in granting me whatever professional flexibility I needed to accomplish the often frenzied juggling act of serving as a senior administrator and completing my doctoral studies. My colleagues and friends on the President’s Cabinet (past and present) – Dr. Howard London, Mr. Miguel Gomes, Mr. Pat Cronin, Dr. Brenda Molife, Dr. Anna Bradfield, Mr. Fred Clark, Dr. Jason Pina, Dr. David Ostroth, Ms. Keri Powers and Dr. Barbara Feldman – have been true partners throughout this journey, always believing in me (especially when I could not find that belief in myself) and injecting good humor (and in some cases, not-so-good humor) along the way. Other professional colleagues and dear friends – Lisa Shaw, Tracey Keif, Laura Machado, Keri Weed, Karen Booth, John Winters, Eva Gaffney, Debi Bousquet and Jason Hebert (to name but a few) – have contributed either provocative insights and/or an immeasurable volume of kindness and love. I simply would not have made it to the finish line without the steady cheers of these fans along the way. Lastly, I am forever grateful to my parents, William and Nancy Baldwin, for always challenging me to do my best, instilling in me (beginning at a very early age) a love for learning, and continually granting me the time and space I need to realize fully the great joys of discovery. If I have an inquisitive, skeptical orientation, it is no doubt the product of my mom playing devil’s advocate for all of those years. If I have been able to remember along the way that how you treat others supersedes the value of any accolade, surely it is the result of watching my dad for so long. vi ABSTRACT DEMOCRATIC POTENTIAL FOR A MULTIPLICITY OF PUBLIC SPACES: A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF MEDIA-HOSTED DISCUSSION BOARDS FEBRUARY 2015 BRYAN MATHEW BALDWIN, B.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS M.A., EMERSON COLLEGE Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Jarice Hanson Since their inception, online discussion boards have intrinsically appealed to proponents of deliberative democracy, and those appended to Web-based news sources have been recognized as possessing the potential – whether realized yet or not – to engender meaningful discussions by engaged citizens on a range of public issues. In contrast, ardent critics of such forums contend they are merely raucous and unstructured repositories of expressions reflecting the darker side of human nature (e.g. incivility, vulgarity, ad hominem attacks, racism, homophobia, etc.). This study assessed the deliberative quality of online postings made over a two- month period and affiliated with four popular news sites. The researcher administered an a priori content analysis scheme designed to gauge four key component measurements of a comment’s deliberative quality (civility, politeness, justification and complexity) while also coding categorical information pertaining to the modality and constitution of precipitating news content. The findings revealed statistically significant differences in the overall deliberative quality of comments, as well as a wide range of differences within each of the component measures, across the four platforms. A broader matrix of comparisons (utilizing each of the categorical variables to group data accordingly) are vii presented in alignment with five overarching research questions. From the study emerges the need to embrace a different premise altogether when considering the efficacy of online discussion boards: to better understand whether or not this contemporary communicative construct is thriving or withering, it is first necessary to recognize that a multiplicity of online spaces exist, each theoretically serving different typologies of publics. Only after doing so does the researcher endeavor to offer an array of tailored reforms to better calibrate the expectations for participant engagement and information dissemination and synthesis. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................... v ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... vii LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... xiii LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... xvi CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 1 Overview: A New Invitation to Construct Meaning ............................................... 1 Political News: A Key Ingredient of Democratic Vitality ...................................... 4 Political Literacy ......................................................................................... 6 Political Cognition ......................................................................................