Invalid. Controversy that accompanies a petition is measured by the level

A debate is structured by denoted pro- and contra-arguments, i.e., by arguments that underpin or oppose the petition's issues. Only arguments that differ in their content material from formerly talked about arguments are also incorporated. Inside the pro- and contra-sections, commenters are allowed to oppose arguments by adding sub-replies (pro-reply-/contra-reply-arguments). Far more controversial subjects result in a greater diversity of pro-, contra-, pro-reply- and contra-reply-arguments. Thus, to measure controversy, we construct a Herfindahl index by taking the percentage of arguments inside every category, i.e., pro-/contra-/pro-reply-/contra-reply-arguments, squaring it, adding them collectively and subtracting the final result from 1. The index measures the controversy that surrounds the topics of petitions from no controversy (= 0) to a maximum of controversy (= 1). To identify scandals, we measure regardless of whether the accusation against an actor forwarded by a petition, for example corruption of a politician, is covered and framed as scandal by conventional news media (1 = yes / 0 = no). We define search phrases that describe the content and concerns from the petition. Inside the database LexisNexis we look for whether these keywords and phrases are linked with the term "scandal" inside the German-speaking media within a time period of 1 year just before the beginning date of each petition. To measure actors' intrinsic motivation, we operationalize fairness perceptions of commenters. We compile a list of 579 expressions frequently employed in ideological discourses that indicate fairness problems, one example is, expressions such as "injustice" or "unfair". Furthermore, we usePLOS One particular | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0155923 June 17,8 /Digital Norm Enforcement in On line Firestormssynonym reference books and databases, manually verify regularly occurring words inside comments and exclude ambiguous words. For each and every commenter we count the volume of intrinsic motivation by taking the sum of fairness words within the comment. We take the logarithm, added by 1, to create an approximate typical distribution of the variable. Manage variables. We title= 0967-3334/36/11/2247 manage for variables that influence the level of on the net aggression. The length of comment is measured by the total quantity of words in a comment. Longer comments are a lot more likely to entail extra aggression. The time period among opening a petition and submitting a comment is integrated because the time point of comment submission may possibly influence commenters' degree of aggression. Aggression may perhaps either take place within the incredibly title= ece3.1533 starting, simply because most signatures and comment activity in petitions are submitted inside the first days [92], or alternatively, in advanced stages, inside the case where a petition experiences a enhance as a result of revived public debate. We measure how a lot of minutes after petition opens that a comment has been submitted. The amount of LY-2523355 web protesters obtaining signed is integrated for the reason that bigger protests are most likely to attract additional on-line aggression. We measure how many individuals sign title= 2013/480630 a particular petition and consequently match this information together with the comments on a certain day. The median of protesters amounts to 76 signers per day with a maximum of two,926 signers each day. We take the logarithm of the number of protesters to make an approximate norma.