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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Sebastian Popa
This is the authors' accepted manuscript of an article that has been published in its final definitive form by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. , 2016.
For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
Existing studies focusing on politicians' adoption of Twitter have found that they use it primarily as a broadcasting tool. We argue that citizens' impolite and/or uncivil behavior is one possible explanation for such decisions. Social media conversations are rife with harassment and politicians are a prime target. This alters the incentive structure of engaging in dialogue on social media. We use Spanish, Greek, German, and U.K. candidates' tweets sent during the run-up to the recent European Parliament elections, and rely on automated text analysis and machine learning methods to measure their level of civility. Our contribution is an actor-oriented theory of political dialogue that incorporates Twitter's specific affordances, clarifying how and why Twitter's democratic promise may be limited.
Author(s): Theocharis Y, Barberá P, Fazekas Z, Popa SA, Parnet O
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Journal of Communication
Year: 2016
Volume: 66
Issue: 6
Pages: 1007-1031
Print publication date: 12/01/2016
Online publication date: 28/10/2016
Acceptance date: 06/10/2015
Date deposited: 01/12/2017
ISSN (print): 0021-9916
ISSN (electronic): 1460-2466
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jcom.12259
DOI: 10.1111/jcom.12259
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