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Doing academia in public view is both a powerful tool and a potentially powerful weapon.

There is no buffer in public writing.

And for many readers the allure of attacking the writer instead of the work is too seductive to deny. That can be a shock when you are accustomed to the civil discourse, no matter how thin or banal, that governs academic critique.

The purpose of this study is to examine how uncivil online interpersonal discussion may contribute to polarization of perceptions about an issue.

Uncivil discourse is a growing concern in American rhetoric, and this trend has expanded beyond traditional media to online sources, such as audience comments. Using an experiment given to a sample representative of the U.S. population, we examine the effects online incivility on perceptions toward a particular issue—namely, an emerging technology, nanotechnology. We found that exposure to uncivil blog comments can polarize risk perceptions of nanotechnology along the lines of religiosity and issue support.

Its ethics and values hold central:

Relationship-building, reciprocity, and mutual benefit Participation, transparency, and reflection Innovation, integration, and dialogue Cultural diversity and social equality In coming to these forms of “applied” scholarship, humanities scholars have emphasized the way that culture in its many forms mediates interactions, development, and knowledge.

Publicly-engaged scholarship yields diverse artifacts, informing knowledge in multiple domains Policy and planning recommendations Museum exhibitions and public performances New curricula for courses or workshops Books and journal articles As consequence, public scholarship also yields new connections among disciplines, communities, and sectors. 

By Public Scholarship we mean bringing the best thinking and research to bear on the most critical issues facing society today.  Public Scholarship also entails a commitment to publishing letters, op-eds, and articles in newspapers, magazines, websites, blogs, and other forms of social media to raise awareness about these issues, to stimulate broad discussion, and to explore the role timely scholarship can play in addressing our most challenging problems. Public scholars strive to communicate simply and clearly to a wide audience, and therefore adopt a journalistic style in which sentences are crisp, paragraphs are brief, and jargon is employed sparingly. While public scholars embrace theory and sophisticated research approaches, they particularly seek to translate theory into practice and to use research findings to shed compelling light on the causes and the effects of pressing social issues. Public scholars also recognize that social issues which affect the broadest range of people matter most. Consequently, issues of poverty, hunger, access to education and healthcare, concerns about the rights of immigrants and other marginalized groups, as well as efforts to ensure public safety and promote social well-being are social priorities that deserve unusually extensive coverage. Public Scholarship is a means by which teachers and scholars can promote the public good, and we encourage faculty, staff, and students to find engaging and innovative ways to communicate with a broader public. We, in the Center for Leadership and Engagement, are pleased to support these efforts and to provide outlets on our website for sharing a variety of perspectives.