ABSTRACT
Most professional journalists and journalism educators would profess to have a preference for civil discourse, as indicated by the ethics codes, news values and principles statements that guide the news industry. When people first started conversing with strangers in cyberspace, discussions tended to be smaller, disparate, anonymous petri dishes of virtual community interaction. Some forums organically established communities of empathy and trust. Others, like 4chan, rewarded disruption, profanity, shock and chaos. Online antagonism broadcast to the masses without interference on news sites and social media allowed a backchannel of antipathy to rise to an offline overcurrent. But when virtual discussion forums expanded onto mainstream news sites, incivility became a dominant disruptive force fueled by mass media attention and comment section neglect. Digital incivility serves as the gateway drug to other complicated problems plaguing public online discourse: polarization, information distortion and participation inequality.
