Democracy online: civility, politeness, and the democratic potential of online political discussion groups

The proponents of cyberspace promise that online discourse will increase political participation and pave the road for a democratic utopia. This article explores the potential for civil discourse in cyberspace by examining the level of civility in 287 discussion threads in political newsgroups. While scholars often use civility and politeness interchangeably, this study argues that this conflation ignores the democratic merit of robust and heated discussion. Therefore, civility was defined in a broader sense, by identifying as civil behaviors that enhance democratic conversation. In support of this distinction, the study results revealed that most messages posted on political newsgroups were civil, and further suggested that because the absence of face-to-face communication fostered more heated discussion, cyberspace might actually promote Lyotard's vision of democratic emancipation through disagreement and anarchy (Lyotard, 1984). Thus, this study supported the internet's potential to revive the public sphere, provided that greater diversity and volume of discussion is present. INTRODUCTION Proponents of cyberspace promise that online discourse will increase political participation and pave the road for a democratic utopia. From this perspective, the alleged decline of the public sphere, or civil society, will be halted by the democratizing effects of the internet and its surrounding technologies. Conversely, skeptics caution that technologies not universally accessible and ones that frequently induce fragmented, nonsensical, and enraged discussion (otherwise known as 'flaming') far from guarantee a revived public sphere. This study traces civility in cyberspace, guided by the assumption that if cyberspace has the potential to truly revive the public sphere, it should promote civility. Are online discussions truly civil? If so, does that make them meaningful and, ultimately, democratic? Civility has always been considered a requirement for democratic discourse. Defined frequently as general politeness and courtesy, civility is valued as an indicator of a functional democratic society. Conversations on the meaning of citizenship, democracy, and public discourse highlight civility as a virtue, the lack of which carries detrimental implications for a democratic society. Along with the decline of the public sphere, academics and politicians concentrate on the decline in public and political civility (e. actual meaning of civility tends to be rather elusive. What does it mean to be civil? What types of behaviors are associated with civility? The literature that links civility to democratic ideals tends to treat it as an end-state, rather than a behavior. Scholars debating the loss of civility often focus on etiquette; however, polite manners …