Acerbity via Cybernames: A Correlating Analysis of Nigerian News Sites

Abstract

Online comment section is one of the most popular forms of user participation in online newspaper. It has been called space for public engagement created for commenters to improve discussion by sharing views, ideas and opinions freely thereby enhancing democratic ideals. Sadly, the constant occurrence of acerbic comments in this space tend to devalue the intentions of its creation. Anecdotal evidence points to anonymity as the reason for this acerbity. Under the framework of the theory of de individuation on which this research hinged on, this study a.) sought to identify the nature of the dominant comment found in the comment section of political news stories of selected online Nigerian newspapers. b.) investigated the correlation between the use of cybernames and acerbity in the comment section of political news stores of selected online Nigerian newspapers. Content analysis method was used in analysing 4,548 comments emanating from the comment section of three online Nigerian newspapers. The result revealed that anonymous/pseudonymous and identified commenters have almost same level of tendency to be acerbic in online space. This implies that in Nigerian online newspapers, anonymity/pseudonymity is not solely linked to acerbity in the comment section but might be due to socio- cultural variations.