scholarly journals Hate Speech in Readers’ Comments and the challenge of Democratic Consolidation in Nigeria: A Critical Analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 23-38
Author(s):  
Tordue Simon Targema ◽  
Joseph M Lucas
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Democratic Consolidation ◽  
Online News ◽  
National Unity ◽  
Governmental Agencies ◽  
Negative Comments ◽  
Study Population ◽  
Verbal Assault ◽  
The Public Sphere

Hate speech is among the most significant communication issues that preoccupy the agenda of relevant governmental agencies and media analysts in contemporary Nigeria. It is an unfortunate phenomenon that manifests in the public sphere, and is fast threatening the fragile democracy which the country is struggling to consolidate. Against this backdrop, this study investigates the nature of readers’ comments on online news sites in the country, their place within the context of hate speech rhetoric, and their implication on democratic consolidation in the country. Hinged on the Social Responsibility Theory, the study employs two research methods- Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and content analysis to investigate the manifestation of hate speech in online readers’ comments. Population of the study comprises 2,530 comments, generated from ten stories on prominent online news platforms in the country. From these, a sample of 250 comments (10% of the population) has been selected systematically for closer examination. Findings reveal that, although quantitatively, positive comments dominate the study population (comprising 60% while negative comments account for the remaining 40%), qualitatively, the trend of discussion is disturbing, as commentators employ the use of hate language, verbal assault, name calling, insults and derogatory words to describe subjects. To this end, the study concludes that readers need to exhibit a high sense of responsibility in the course of interaction on the online comments platforms. Where such responsibility is not self-enforced by commentators, news platforms should remove comments that contain venomous hate language in the interest of national unity, democracy and development.

scholarly journals A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF LANGUAGE USE ON FACEBOOK: A STUDY OF PREMIUM TIMES NEWS HEADLINES

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rita Bossan ◽  
Gideon Abioye Oyedeji
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Online News ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
National Unity ◽  
Strategic Plans ◽  
The Social ◽  
News Headlines

Attaining national unity and cohesion is a function of deliberate strategic plans of different facets of human endeavour in a nation. The language front has important role to play in fostering national unity and cohesion in any country. The Nigeria and Africa situation is not an exception. The chaos and rivalry that have become an intrinsic experience for us in Nigeria and in fact, Africa is partly a function of careless and unchecked language use in the social media. This paper, therefore, explores the use and misuse of language on social media. The study examines the comments of Facebook users to online news headlines posted on Premium Times Facebook handle. A corpus of a week screenshot samples of these comments are collected out of which nine (9) were purposively selected for the analysis. These nine (9) data are grouped into five (5) texts. The selected data were analysed using Dell Hymes’ Ethnography of Speaking complemented by Theo van Leeuwen’s Identities and Subjectivity Model of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The paper uses the SPEAKING acronym as the theoretical insight and discussion was based on the postulations of the CDA model adopted. The study found that the responses from readers are mostly tilting towards their individual affiliations. Also, instances of arguments and rebuttals by readers reflect a situation where the polarity tilts in bidirectional positive in-group - “us” and negative out-group – “them” among the different affiliations the users represent. The study further found that copious use of vulgar expressions pervades the comments of readers. This study therefore concludes that such use of language cannot help Nigeria and Africa in its quest for unity. The study recommends that media literacy be taught in schools in order to entrench civility in the discussions of people on social media.

scholarly journals Discourses on Languages and Identities in Readers' Comments in Ukrainian Online News Media: An Ethnolinguistic Identity Theory Perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 9-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roman Horbyk
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
News Media ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Mass Scale ◽  
Online News ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Ethnolinguistic Identity ◽  
Language Groups ◽  
Discourse Historical Approach

This study is a pioneering attempt to apply social and ethnolinguistic identity theories developed by social psychologists Henri Tajfel, Howard Giles, and Patricia Johnson, and Judith Butler’s critical feminist theory of hate speech, to Ukrainian realities. The material comprises nearly 3,000 readers’ comments concerning language issues posted to Ukraine’s leading news website Ukrains'ka pravda (Ukrainian Truth) in 2010-12, and is analyzed through a systematic discourse-historical approach within a critical discourse analysis. Notorious for intolerance, filthy language, and trolling on a mass scale, the comments reflected the language situation in Ukraine from 2010 to 2012, demonstrating linguistic optimism, linguistic alarmism, denial of bilingualism, and historicist, legalist, and laissez-fair discourses. The readers’ comments deny or affirm the authenticity of either the Russian or the Ukrainian language, propose the exclusion or inclusion of the Russophone population in Ukraine, or deny that there are identity differences. From the chosen theoretical perspective, this study testifies to an unequal power status of the language groups, to the cultural hegemony of Russophones and the challenge to this hegemony by Ukrainophones, to mutual othering, and to an abundance of hate speech. Arguably, the use of hate speech assisted in developing and cementing the identities of Ukrainians who connected strongly with either the Ukrainian or the Russian language.

New Indian online rules risk state overreach and abuse

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
News Media ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Online News ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Digital Service ◽  
The Government

Significance The new rules follow a stand-off between Twitter and the central government last month over some posts and accounts. The government has used this stand-off as an opportunity not only to tighten rules governing social media, including Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook and LinkedIn, but also those for other digital service providers including news publishers and entertainment streaming companies. Impacts Government moves against dominant social media platforms will boost the appeal of smaller platforms with light or no content moderation. Hate speech and harmful disinformation are especially hard to control and curb on smaller platforms. The new rules will have a chilling effect on online public discourse, increasing self-censorship (at the very least). Government action against online news media would undercut fundamental democratic freedoms and the right to dissent. Since US-based companies dominate key segments of the Indian digital market, India’s restrictive rules could mar India-US ties.

Discursive representation of the Article 370 abrogation: A comparative CDA of the headlines of two major Indian online news publications

Journalism ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 146488492110568
Author(s):  
Arif Hussain Nadaf
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
News Media ◽  
Cognitive Model ◽  
Online News ◽  
Indian Government ◽  
Jammu And Kashmir ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
News Discourse ◽  
The Times ◽  
Local News Media

The Indian government on 5 August, 2019, unilaterally removed Article 370 of its constitution that provided autonomous status to the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir. In order to pre-empt any backlash, the authorities put the entire region under strict lockdown and imposed a complete communication blackout including suspension of internet, mobile, and landline phone services. The Indian media vociferously covered the issue of higher “national interest” with no counter-narrative from local news media in the region. Using Van Djik’s socio-cognitive model, the study conducted comparative critical discourse analysis of the headlines from two major Indian online news publications; the English daily The Times of India and the Hindi daily Dainik Jagran to identify the discursive strategies adopted by these newspapers after the revocation of the Article 370. The study aimed to understand how Indian newspapers were shaping the discourse when the Indian government imposed communication restrictions and lockdown in the region. Through CDA, the study located the discursive strategies in the headlines and the ideological standpoints they reflected while covering the Article 370 controversy. The CDA found that the headline discourse in both the news publications was characterized by aggressive nationalistic assertion reinforcing domestic legitimacy for the government’s decision. The analysis further showed substantial evidence for the cultural distances between the English and Hindi language news discourse. Unlike English headlines, the Hindi headlines contained explicit linguistic subjectivities and were overtly hyperbolic in recognizing and blending itself with the nationalist assertion and socio-political expression around the abrogation of Article 370.

scholarly journals Julkinen kaivoskeskustelu diskursiivisena välienselvittelynä

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veera Kangaspunta
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Online News ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Online Newspapers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Analytical Tools ◽  
Unique Part

The aim of this article is to approach one specific environmental topic and the public debate around this topic from a user-oriented perspective – through online news comments. The article analyses online news and comments sections from three Finnish online newspapers concerning the mining accident of Talvivaara company in November 2012. Discourse and discursive legitimation strategies are used as analytical tools with the focus of critical discourse analysis. The study aims to solve what kind of discourses the public debate contains and how these discourses are connected to certain legitimation strategies. In addition, the article also continues the conceptual deliberation about the concept of the public as a group of people participating in public discussion. The study shows that Talvivaara news and news comments consist four main strategies, authorization, rationalization, moral evaluations and mythopoiesis, used for legitimation, relegitimation and delegitimation. However, the parties differ in the way they utilize these strategies and different discourses. Consequently, online news commenting appears as a unique part of the public debate about the topic, rather than remaining marginal flaming. The users tend to absorb the role of the public as a part of the public showdown about the shared issue.

scholarly journals Social engineers and myth-busters: A comparative research on Lithuanian, Norwegian and Serbian language experts

2020 ◽  
pp. 292-344
Author(s):  
Vuk Vukotić
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Great Majority ◽  
Online News ◽  
The Other ◽  
Striking Similarity ◽  
The Public ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The One

This article compares the language ideologies of language experts (both academic and non-academic) in online news media in Lithuania, Norway and Serbia. The results will reveal that language is understood in diametrically opposed ways amongst Lithuanian and Serbian academic experts on the one, and Norwegian academic experts on the other hand. Lithuanian and Serbian academic experts are influenced by modernist ideas of language as a single, homogenous entity, whose borders ideally match the borders of an ethnic group. Norwegian academic experts function in the public sphere as those who try to deconstruct the modernist notion of language by employing an understanding of language as a cognitive tool that performs communicative and other functions. On the other hand, non-academic experts in all the three countries exhibit a striking similarity in their language ideologies, as the great majority expresses modernist ideals of language.

scholarly journals A Critical Discourse Analysis of News Construction on Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia’s Disbandment

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Saptorini Listianingsih
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Political Interest ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
National Unity ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Online Newspapers ◽  
The Government

This study uses van Dijk’s version of Critical Discourse Analysis perspective to examine the news construction of Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia’s disbandment in two online newspapers. The two online newspapers used in this study are the Jakarta Post and Jakarta Globe. From the analysis, it shows us that based on textual analysis, the government and HTI are portrayed as two opposing parties. The government is described as ruling regime having authority to maintain national interests that is Pancasila as well as national unity, diversity, and security, while HTI is described as the organization against national interest. Thus, the disbandment of HTI is a correct step to defend national interests. This is in accordance with the developing discourse in society that the existence of HTI is considered to endanger Pancasila. Furthermore, this research revealed that the history, vision mission, previous experience and the political interest of special political elites in media has had decisive influence in transforming reality into news texts.

scholarly journals Critical analysis of the discourse on Judith Butler´s visit to the country in the most popular online news portals

MEDIACIONES ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (23) ◽  
pp. 91-106
Author(s):  
Katia Maria Belisario ◽  
Kaitlynn Menders
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Nuclear Family ◽  
Gender Ideology ◽  
Judith Butler ◽  
Online News ◽  
Social Construct ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Online Comments ◽  
The Witch ◽  
Media Reports

In November 2017, feminist theorist Judith Butler travelled to Brazil to participate in an international conference. During the event, protesters gathered, carrying signs, chanting slogans, and burning an effigy of her while shouting, “Burn the witch!” According to media reports, these protesters wanted to preserve notions of the traditional nuclear family within Brazil and protect children against Butler’s “diabolical gender ideology”, which includes her theory that gender is a social construct and a cultural interpretation that overlaps with biological determinism. The protest attracted mainstream media attention. This article aims to identify the key discourses used by anti- and pro-Butler activists commenting in the most popular news portals in the country, UOL and G1. The questions guiding this study are: 1) How is feminism represented in Brazil? 2) How do protesters and counter-protesters understand and argue about “gender ideology”? The methodology used is the critical discourse analysis of online comments of readers of both portals.

Ideology and discourse in the public sphere: A critical discourse analysis of public debates at a Brazilian public university

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 278-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Persson ◽  
Luís Moretto Neto
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Public University ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
University Hospitals ◽  
Staff Shortage ◽  
Public Company ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Set Up

Since 2013, several social actors of the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) community have formed a public sphere in order to deliberate and decide on the University Hospital’s (UH/UFSC) affiliation to the Brazilian Hospital Services Company (EBSERH), a public company set up in accordance with a private law which has been created by the Brazilian federal government in order to set up a management body for public university hospitals. Underpinned by critical discourse analysis, our purpose is to analyze the embedded ideologies in discursive practices within the UFSC/EBSERH public sphere, especially those perpetrated by the federal government’s bureaucratic means as to mystify reality, and also promote and legitimize dominant interests and actions with regard to the UH/UFSC’s affiliation to the EBSERH. We organized this analysis in five main categories: (1) staff shortage and the ideological use of the double standard policy, (2) the ideology of neo-liberalism and managerialism, (3) blame avoidance behavior and the ideological dispute between ideology and pragmatism, (4) the policy of terror and the fallacy of choice and (5) ideology of participationism.

scholarly journals Post-Truth: Hegemony on Social Media and Implications for Sustainability Communication

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 2120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecilia Jaques ◽  
Mine Islar ◽  
Gavin Lord
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Scientific Information ◽  
The United States ◽  
Marxian Theory ◽  
The Public ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The One ◽  
Science In Society

Contrary to what practice suggests, social media platforms may not be an appropriate forum for communicating with civil society about sustainability issues such as climate change. Misinformation campaigns are distorting the line between fact and falsity on social media platforms, and there has been a profound shift in the way that social media users consume and interact with information. These conditions have been popularly labeled as the post-truth era. Drawing from Neo-Marxian theory, we argue that post-truth can be explained as a new iteration of ideological struggle under capitalist hegemony. We substantiate this claim through a mixed methods investigation synthesizing corpus-assisted lexical analysis and critical discourse analysis to evaluate 900 user-generated comments taken from three articles on socioenvironmental topics published on Facebook by news organizations in the United States. The results showed that the nature of this struggle is tied explicitly to the role of science in society, where the legitimacy of science is caught in a tug-of-war of values between elitism on the one hand and a rejection of the establishment on the other. It follows that presenting truthful information in place of false information is an insufficient means of coping with post-truth. We conclude by problematizing the notion that Facebook is an adequate forum for public dialogue and advocate for a change in strategy from those wishing to communicate scientific information in the public sphere.

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