Active Citizenship and Hate Speech on Social Media in the Context of Romanian Family Referendum

Iasmina Petrovici,Corina Sîrb,Simona Bader

doi:10.18662/po/80

Abstract

Active citizenship is one of the most interesting characteristics of young generations worldwide and is strongly connected to digital media usage. Internet gives people a voice to speak up about stressing community problems, unite in groups with the same views for a stronger impact and conduct true lobby campaigns to promote and sustain their ideas. However tangible, utopic or doubtful this democratic way of civic involvement may appear for a global digital community, its manifestation is still problematic, as it nurtures, in some cases, hate speech and extreme polarization of opinions. To support this idea, we conducted a study that analysed civic activism and the values promoted in the context of Romanian Family Referendum. Using a qualitative methodology based on communication sciences techniques and semiotic investigation, we analysed the type of discourse used in social media and the frequency of hate speech and undemocratic behaviour. At the end of this study, we will outline some concluding ideas regarding the discussed topic.

Highlights

Civic activation is one of the most interesting characteristics of young generations worldwide and is strongly connected to digital media usage (Sirb, 2017)
The present paper is not focused on the problem of finding out whether online hate speech should be censored or regulated in any other forms, but to show that, contrary to the common belief and its immense potential, sometimes Romanian social media is not used as a space to debate public issues, but rather as a tool for unloading frustration
Digital communication forms groups, one way or the other and hate speech is all about group communication: “Hate speech discursively constructs the in-group in extremely positive terms while constructing the out-group in dehumanized terms, including characterizing the out-group as posing a threat to the in-group and Active Citizenship and Hate Speech on Social Media in the Context of

Summary

Conceptual clarifications

Civic activation is one of the most interesting characteristics of young generations worldwide and is strongly connected to digital media usage (Sirb, 2017). Digital media has been the main space to nurture hate speech, as users feel: 1) detached (in contrast to direct communication, digital dialogue is regarded as distant, which explains the courage of expressing oneself); 2) protected (the effects of an insult are insignificant for the aggressor); 3) empowered (by the reactions from the people from the in-group; ) 4) free (due to lack of legal reglementations) As it will be seen in our research, the analysis we pursued reflects Waltman & Haas perspective on hate speech as always being a discourse constructed between an in-group and an out-group. While the European Union has been struggling to find the proper means and measures to regulate digital dialogue, it appears that when it comes to subjects of high public interest, social media still fosters both constructive dialogue and bigoted attitudes

Case Study

Content analysis

Conclusions