Original
Political Satire and the Decline of Discourse Quality: Evidence from China’s Online Public Sphere
Abstract
Abstract Extensive research has examined whether political satire promotes or suppresses political discussion, but far less attention has been paid to how it shapes discourse quality. This study investigates the impact of political satire on discourse quality by scrutinizing the substance of online discussions in a non-democratic context. Drawing on manual content analysis of discussions on a major Chinese social media platform surrounding China’s controversial policy to raise the age of retirement, we analysed original posts and subsequent replies (N = 3,400) to assess the impact of satire on online political talk. The results show that political satire significantly decreases topic relevance and rationality, while exerting no significant effect on civility, and virtually precludes argument reciprocity. These findings contribute theoretically by shifting the focus from whether satire stimulates political engagement to how it influences the substantive quality of deliberation. They also invite a reassessment of the often-overemphasized optimistic role of political satire, highlighting its potential to erode rational and constructive discourse.
中文
政治讽刺与话语质量的下降：来自中国网络公共领域的证据
摘要
摘要：大量研究已经考察了政治讽刺是促进还是压制政治讨论，但对其如何塑造话语质量的关注却少得多。本研究通过审视非民主语境下网络讨论的实质内容，考察政治讽刺对话语质量的影响。基于对中国一个主要社交媒体平台上围绕中国颇具争议的延迟退休年龄政策讨论的人工内容分析，我们分析了原始帖子和后续回复（N = 3,400），以评估讽刺对网络政治谈话的影响。结果表明，政治讽刺显著降低了话题相关性和理性程度，但对文明性没有显著影响，并且几乎排除了论证互惠性。这些发现的理论贡献在于，将关注点从讽刺是否激发政治参与转向它如何影响审议的实质质量。它们也促使人们重新评估政治讽刺常被过度强调的乐观作用，并突出其侵蚀理性与建设性话语的潜力。
关键词
政治讽刺、话语质量、网络公共领域、在线政治讨论、中国、社交媒体、内容分析、审议质量