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ZusammenfassungUnzivile Online-Diskussionen können Einstellungen zu gesellschaftlichen Streitfragen polarisieren, prosoziales Verhalten gegenüber bestimmten Gruppen reduzieren und potenzielle Teilnehmende von einer aktiven Beteiligung abschrecken. Um das Diskussionsklima zu verbessern und die dysfunktionalen Konsequenzen von unzivilen Online-Diskussionen zu reduzieren, werden neben der Intervention professioneller Community-Manager immer wieder die Potenziale zivilcouragierten Engagements durch die Nutzer*innen selbst diskutiert.Die vorliegende Studie untersucht, welche Faktoren hemmend oder begünstigend auf verschiedene Formen der Intervention von Nutzer*innen gegen Inzivilität in Online-Diskussionen wirken. Anhand einer Befragung von 575 Mitgliedern der Gruppe #ichbinhier prüfen wir den Einfluss verschiedener interventionshemmender und -begünstigenden Faktoren, die wir aus der Forschung zum Bystander-Verhalten ableiten, auf die Bereitschaft, sich mittels eigener Kommentare („tippen“) oder durch die Bewertung bereits vorhandener Kommentare („klicken“) einzubringen.Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die politische Facebook-Nutzung, das Gefühl persönlicher Verantwortung sowie die Erwartung einer Verbesserung des Diskussionsklimas die generelle Interventionsbereitschaft („klicken“ und „tippen“) in der untersuchten Gruppe begünstigen. Die eigene schriftsprachliche Kompetenz sowie die Erwartung sozialer Anerkennung spielen lediglich für die Intervention mittels eigener Kommentare eine Rolle; das Bewerten vorhandener Kommentare bleibt davon unberührt. Click-Speech erscheint demnach als eine alternative und weniger voraussetzungsvolle Interventionsform im Vergleich zur Intervention mittels Kommentaren.

Journalists, scholars, and citizens have raised concerns regarding the high share of incivility in comment sections of news outlets. The current study surveyed members of the social movement #ichbinhier, which aims at collectively countering uncivil comments to cultivate a civil discussion atmosphere in comment sections. We root the activities of #ichbinhier as corrective action and identify the determinants of the members’ engagement by integrating research on bystander behavior and collective action. The findings of our survey show that factors pertaining to individual skills, perceived responsibility, and expected benefits relate to the members’ likelihood to engage against uncivil online comments. Regarding factors derived from collective action research, group efficacy and knowledge of the rules and structures of the movement account for higher levels of engagement. These results shed light on the factors that motivate and inhibit #ichbinhier members—and, potentially, Facebook users in general—to engage against uncivil comments.

Media habits are central constructs in audience research. Yet, little is known about the formation of (media) habits. Based on theoretical elaboration and the results of a longitudinal study on the...

The study investigates the flagging behavior as specific type of bystander intervention against uncivil user comments in comments sections on news sites. Two experimental studies examine the effects of intervention information, characteristics of response comments, and the type of victim attacked in a comment on flagging behavior, that is on reporting a comment to professional moderators. Our results indicate that intervention information is a promising strategy to motivate flagging. Flagging is based on responsibility attribution to professional moderators but not on self-responsibility perception. Type of victim and characteristics of other users’ posted responses to preceding comments (public disagreement and politeness) shape deviance perceptions of the situation and influence flagging behavior.

When measuring media habits, most scholars rely on retrospective self-reports about behavioral frequency, context stability, or automaticity of the performance. This article develops a new implicit measurement for media research to complement existing approaches, which focuses on measuring the initiation of general, goal-related habits. In the response-frequency measure of media habit (RFMMH), participants are presented with several media use goals and are asked to choose quickly and without deliberation which media device (television set, radio set, newspaper, computer, mobile device) they would use. The more often a media device is chosen, the stronger the mental script to choose this device should be and the stronger the habit is assumed to be. The results of a validation study confirm that the RFMMH correlates positively with other habit measures. This suggests that the RFMMH may add a valuable instrument to habit research.