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Although online political incivility has increasingly become an object of scholarly inquiry, there exists little agreement on the construct's precise definition. The goal of this work was therefore to explore the relational dynamics among previously identified dimensions of online political incivility. The results of a regularized partial correlation network indicated that a communicator's desire to exclude attitude-discrepant others from discussion played an especially influential role in the variable network. The data also suggested that certain facets of incivility may be likely to be deployed together. Specifically, the data suggested the existence of two identifiable groupings of incivility factors: (1) variables pertaining to violation of speech-based norms and (2) variables pertaining to the violation of the inclusion-based norms that underlie democratic communication processes. These results are discussed in the context of political discussion and deliberation.

In light of concerns over the spread of so-called "fake news" on social media, organizations, and policymakers have increasingly sought to identify tools that can be used to stem the dissemination of misinformation and disinformation. Some evidence suggests that brief media literacy interventions might serve as an important means of helping social media users discern between "real" and "fake" news headlines. However, empirical research indicates that these effects tend to be relatively modest in magnitude. To that end, this study explored the degree to which epistemic self-efficacy beliefs may be able to positively "boost" media literacy interventions. Specifically, we used a series of 2 × 2 experiments to test the contention that the combinatory effects of epistemic self-efficacy and media literacy interventions will better equip users with the resources necessary to discern between disinformation and objectively produced news content. The results failed to indicate the presence of combinatory effects. We did, however, find initial evidence that epistemic self-efficacy beliefs may be importantly associated with the ability to properly classify both fake and mainstream news content.

This theoretical exploration describes the social and technical features that, together, play a role in the resilience of deviant ideas in contemporary society. It argues, specifically, that two distinct but inter-related spherical processes together contribute to the social persistency of deviant information. The first of these spherical phenomena relates to the fragmentation of the dominant public discussion sphere. The second spherical process of interest relates to information spheres, and specifically as it pertains to a widening of the sphere of legitimate controversy (i.e., the society-wide determination that a topic or object of conversation is worthy of debate). This article argues that these two spherical entities—the constellation of dominate and counter discussion spheres and the information sphere—have a mutualistic and interactive relationship with one another, and that understanding this relationship provides critical insight into the social resilience of deviant information.

This study examined political advertisements placed by the Russian-based Internet Research Agency on Facebook and Instagram. Advertisements were computationally analyzed for four rhetorical techniques presumed to elicit anger and fear: negative identity-based language, inflammatory language, obscene language, and threatening language. Congruent with extant research on arousing emotional responses, advertising clickthrough rates were positively associated with inflammatory, obscene, and threatening language. Surprisingly, however, a negative relationship between clickthrough rate and the use of negative identity-based language was observed. Additional analyses showed that the advertisements were engaged with at rates that exceed industry benchmarks, and that clickthrough rates increased over time.

Abstract
Need for orientation (NFO) has long been accepted as an antecedent to agenda-setting effects. This study assessed whether NFO can go further to explain a specific behavior, why individuals share political news on Facebook. A new method is introduced that combines survey data with users' Facebook accounts and their actual Facebook posts to reveal the historical news sharing behaviors of 741 U.S. citizens. Computer-assisted content analysis is employed to analyze nearly a million messages for the presence of political news content. Results suggest that a key component found in need for orientation – attention to relevant issues and facts – predicts observed political news sharing on Facebook. Other demographics such as age and gender also predict news sharing behavior. In all, the model employed here significantly predicts news sharing while commonly regarded antecedents to political sharing, including news consumption and political interest, fail to do so.

This study examines the relationship between social capital and uncivil political communication online using a sample of politically active Facebook users and their Facebook post data. Theory suggests that social capital, in both its bonded and bridged forms, may inhibit the frequency and severity of online political incivility. The results here indicate that bonded social capital is negatively associated with political incivility on Facebook. Bridged capital is not, however, statistically related to posting uncivil content on Facebook.

This research seeks to quantify social media's value as a reporting tool for journalists by understanding it as an instrument for accessing personal data. A national survey of reporters at all large and midsize U.S. newspapers shows that journalists place more value on Twitter than Facebook as it relates to professional practice. Evaluation of the various practice-based functions relative to individual journalists' value perceptions suggests that Facebook's value is tied to its use for querying friends and conducting research. Twitter's value was significantly tied to the platform's use for querying followers, performing research, and activities associated with contacting sources.

Using a method incorporating both survey and trace data measures, this study presented and tested a theoretical model for understanding political expression on Facebook. The data suggested that self-reported measures of offline civic engagement, bonded social capital, and ideological extremity were predictive of a self-reported measure of general online political engagement. For its part, self-reported levels of online political engagement were positively and significantly associated with observed political expression on Facebook. These results are discussed in the context of both on and offline political connection and communication.

Prior research has reliably shown a positive relationship between political talk and political knowledge. This study sought to build upon this research by assessing the association between internet-based textual political expression and political knowledge. Notably, while online textual political expression is closely linked to traditional conceptualizations of political talk, it is also different in several key ways. Accordingly, this study drew upon research and theorization in the areas of political talk, online expression, and communication self-effects to explore the association between political commentary frequency on Facebook and performance on a political knowledge quiz. Moreover, we investigated the degree to which expression-apparent elaborative thinking levels were differentially associated with political knowledge. The results indicated that Facebook-based textual political expression was, as predicted, positively associated with political knowledge. Therein, we found that textual political expression indicative of high levels of elaboration was much more strongly associated with political knowledge levels than textual political expression that was indicative of comparatively lower levels of elaboration. Finally, exploratory analyses suggested that highly elaborative textual political expression was at least as strongly related to political knowledge as traditional media consumption variables.