Does Civility Matter in the Blogosphere?

Previous research has addressed problems of incivility in traditional media setting as well as interpersonal communication. However, the growing readership of partisan-based political blogs and recent concerns about nasty blogs calls for research attention on how bloggers' tone of expressing disagreement influence readers' emotional reactions and their attitudes toward political disagreement. Accordingly, this study examines how readers react to uncivil blog commentary, as a function of whether or not they identify as a member of the party that the partisan blogger is critiquing. Results generally support scholars' concerns about detrimental effects of incivility especially when the blogger attacked views consistent with the participants' position. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]