Welcome to the InfoSci Platform
Construction of the Political Other in Citizens' Comments on Politicians' Facebook Pages

Construction of the Political Other in Citizens' Comments on Politicians' Facebook Pages

Oyewole Adekunle Oladapo
Copyright: © 2017 |Volume: 8 |Issue: 2 |Pages: 13
ISSN: 1947-9131|EISSN: 1947-914X|EISBN13: 9781522513469|DOI: 10.4018/IJEP.2017040102
Cite Article Cite Article

MLA

Oladapo, Oyewole Adekunle. "Construction of the Political Other in Citizens' Comments on Politicians' Facebook Pages." IJEP vol.8, no.2 2017: pp.17-29. http://doi.org/10.4018/IJEP.2017040102

APA

Oladapo, O. A. (2017). Construction of the Political Other in Citizens' Comments on Politicians' Facebook Pages. International Journal of E-Politics (IJEP), 8(2), 17-29. http://doi.org/10.4018/IJEP.2017040102

Chicago

Oladapo, Oyewole Adekunle. "Construction of the Political Other in Citizens' Comments on Politicians' Facebook Pages," International Journal of E-Politics (IJEP) 8, no.2: 17-29. http://doi.org/10.4018/IJEP.2017040102

Export Reference

Mendeley
Favorite Full-Issue Download

Abstract

Facebook is emerging as a platform for moderately civil political discussion because of its high level of identifiability. To confirm if Facebook construction of political opposition is equally civil, this study content analyses 28 comment threads (N=3,311 comments) from the Facebook pages of four aspirants in two Nigerian gubernatorial elections. The study finds that civil comments, though mostly impolite, dominate the Facebook pages of the aspirants. It finds also a significant relationship between comment position and its politeness and civility. Neutral comments are most likely to be civil and polite while dissenting comments are most likely to be uncivil. More than others, dissenting comments constitute a potent discursive tool for othering political opposition into a politically disadvantaged position.

Request Access

You do not own this content. Please login to recommend this title to your institution's librarian or purchase it from the IGI Global bookstore.