Upvotes? Downvotes? No Votes? Understanding the relationship between
reaction mechanisms and political discourse on Reddit
- URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2302.09540v1
- Date: Sun, 19 Feb 2023 11:12:45 GMT
- Title: Upvotes? Downvotes? No Votes? Understanding the relationship between
reaction mechanisms and political discourse on Reddit
- Authors: Orestis Papakyriakopoulos, Severin Engelmann, Amy Winecoff
- Abstract summary: This study investigates the relationship between social media reaction mechanisms and political rhetoric in user discussions.
We analyze 155 million user comments in 55 political subforums on Reddit between 2010 and 2018.
We find that political discourse theories describe political discussions on Reddit to a large extent.
- Score: 0.6767885381740952
- License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
- Abstract: A significant share of political discourse occurs online on social media
platforms. Policymakers and researchers try to understand the role of social
media design in shaping the quality of political discourse around the globe. In
the past decades, scholarship on political discourse theory has produced
distinct characteristics of different types of prominent political rhetoric
such as deliberative, civic, or demagogic discourse. This study investigates
the relationship between social media reaction mechanisms (i.e., upvotes,
downvotes) and political rhetoric in user discussions by engaging in an
in-depth conceptual analysis of political discourse theory. First, we analyze
155 million user comments in 55 political subforums on Reddit between 2010 and
2018 to explore whether users' style of political discussion aligns with the
essential components of deliberative, civic, and demagogic discourse. Second,
we perform a quantitative study that combines confirmatory factor analysis with
difference in differences models to explore whether different reaction
mechanism schemes (e.g., upvotes only, upvotes and downvotes, no reaction
mechanisms) correspond with political user discussion that is more or less
characteristic of deliberative, civic, or demagogic discourse. We produce three
main takeaways. First, despite being "ideal constructs of political rhetoric,"
we find that political discourse theories describe political discussions on
Reddit to a large extent. Second, we find that discussions in subforums with
only upvotes, or both up- and downvotes are associated with user discourse that
is more deliberate and civic. Third, social media discussions are most
demagogic in subreddits with no reaction mechanisms at all. These findings
offer valuable contributions for ongoing policy discussions on the relationship
between social media interface design and respectful political discussion among
users.
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