There is much debate among media professionals and academics concerning the role of interactive online media in the education of citizens about current political events. Generally, the media provide information about current events that can be used by individuals to make informed decisions in a democracy. Providing individuals with the opportunity to comment on news articles might aid this process by facilitating elaboration on the topic through online discussions, which has been causally linked to subsequent acquisition of knowledge. To test whether this is true, the present dissertation first tests if elaboration in fact predicts the amount of knowledge individuals acquire from a news article, and whether the availability of comments predicts elaboration.The same online discussions, however, have also been linked to a polarization of viewpoints and the demise of conversations that potentially facilitate elaboration. One common characteristic of online comments that is said to be particularly disruptive is flaming. Flaming is the expression of hostility toward others in online communication and has been found to exert a negative influence on a variety of user perceptions and behaviors. The present dissertation investigates whether flaming affects the amount and quality of knowledge individuals acquire from the news they are exposed to by means of elaboration. In addition, this dissertation investigates if specific design features of online commenting sections, such as tools signaling a commenter's credibility as well as political ideology, also affect elaboration. Finally, this dissertation assesses how credibility and political ideology interact with flaming when it comes to elaboration. It is the goal of this dissertation to contribute to the literature on the consumption of and knowledge acquisition from political news online and provide news organizations with guidelines for the design of interactive news sites. To achieve this goal, two online experiments (n=312) were conducted in which participants were exposed to different online commenting scenarios and then tested on how much knowledge they acquired from the related news articles. OLS regression models and t-tests were used to determine the nature of the effects of flaming, credibility and political ideology on elaboration. Overall, the present data support a causal link between elaboration and knowledge for two of the three tested dimensions and show that flaming had a negative effect on perceptions of news credibility and elaboration. The availability of comments in general did not have a statistically significant effect on elaboration. Only when comments exhibit very specific characteristics, their availability leads to an increase in elaboration. This is not only true when individuals engage in those discussions, but also when they merely see them. Furthermore, the effect of flaming on elaboration is fully mediated by perceptions about the trustworthiness dimension of credibility of the commenters. Whether the political ideology of a commenter matches the political ideology of the reader does not play a significant role. Together the results of the present dissertation shed light on the benefits and drawbacks of online comments and further emphasize the importance of finding new ways to keep online discussions civil.
Read
