Adolescents' Interaction in WhatsApp Groups: The Normalisation of Violent Content.

Introduction Adolescents are increasingly exposed to hate speech in both online and offline contexts, yet limited research has examined how such exposure is experienced and how it relates to adolescents' psychological needs and well‐being. Drawing on Self‐Determination Theory (SDT), this study explores how adolescents make sense of hate speech and how these experiences affect autonomy, competence, and relatedness in everyday peer and digital environments. Methods Ten focus groups were conducted with 46 Swedish upper secondary school students (girls and boys) aged 16–19 years. Data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis within a critical realist framework, allowing for an in‐depth exploration of shared patterns of meaning across school‐based and online contexts. Results Four interrelated themes were developed. Omnipresence of hate speech captured adolescents' experiences of hate speech as difficult to avoid and emotionally draining. Ambiguity of hate speech highlighted challenges in distinguishing hate speech from jokes, memes, or peer‐based humor, complicating moral evaluation and response. Conformity to hate norms illustrated how social pressures encouraged tolerance of or participation in hostile talk to maintain belonging, often at the expense of autonomy. Finally, online‐specific dynamics showed how anonymity and normalization facilitated hostile behavior, discouraged intervention, and undermined adolescents' sense of competence. Conclusions Adolescents experience hate speech as ambiguous, normalized, and difficult to resist, with clear implications for their autonomy, competence, and relatedness. The findings demonstrate how exposure to hate speech can shift motivation toward controlled regulation or disengagement, highlighting the importance of interventions that strengthen adolescents' psychological needs in both peer and digital contexts.

There are rising concerns over the spread of misinformation and hate speech on mobile instant messaging, especially during political elections. In 2019, when Indonesia held its legislative and presidential elections, WhatsApp groups had become the main source of the harmful content for Indonesians, with politically motivated content being the most received. This paper examined how Indonesian women used WhatsApp groups and addressed the harmful content on the platform during the arguably most divisive presidential election in the country’s history. Their experiences were approached with the four processes of domestication: appropriation, conversion, incorporation, and objectification. This study applies qualitative approach by conducting semi-structured interviews with 30 informants selected through purposive sampling technique in five Indonesian cities namely Jakarta, Banda Aceh, Yogyakarta, Makassar, and Jayapura. This study found that WhatsApp groups enabled them to gain self-actualization for professional and personal purposes, but their experience was disrupted by the political event that drove misinformation and hate speeches. Based on their gender identity, political interest and ethnicity, they responded to misinformation and hate speech differently in different WhatsApp groups, ranging from ignoring to verifying and debunking them. Their responses to misinformation and hate speech differ depending on their understanding of gender bias, political interests, as well as religious and ethnic identities, which are also influenced by the type of group and conversations on WhatsApp groups. Keywords: Indonesian women, WhatsApp, domestication, misinformation, hate speech.

Background: Reflexive thematic analysis is widely used in qualitative research published in Palliative Medicine, and in the broader field of health research. However, this approach is often not used well. Common problems in published reflexive thematic analysis in general include assuming thematic analysis is a singular approach, rather than a family of methods, confusing themes and topics, and treating and reporting reflexive thematic analysis as if it is atheoretical. Purpose: We reviewed 20 papers published in Palliative Medicine between 2014 and 2022 that cited Braun and Clarke, identified using the search term ‘thematic analysis’ and the default ‘relevance’ setting on the journal webpage. The aim of the review was to identify common problems and instances of good practice. Problems centred around a lack of methodological coherence, and a lack of reflexive openness, clarity and detail in reporting. We considered contributors to these common problems, including the use of reporting checklists that are not coherent with the values of reflexive thematic analysis. To support qualitative researchers in producing coherent and reflexively open reports of reflexive thematic analysis we have developed the Reflexive Thematic Analysis Reporting Guidelines (the RTARG; in Supplemental Materials) informed by this review, other reviews we have done and our values and experience as qualitative researchers. The RTARG is also intended for use by peer reviewers to encourage methodologically coherent reviewing. Key learning points: Methodological incoherence and a lack of transparency are common problems in reflexive thematic analysis research published in Palliative Medicine. Coherence can be facilitated by researchers and reviewers striving to be knowing – thoughtful, deliberative, reflexive and theoretically aware – practitioners and appraisers of reflexive thematic analysis and developing an understanding of the diversity within the thematic analysis family of methods.

This study examines the prevalence and effects of hate speech propagation on WhatsApp groups in Nigeria. It also explores the role of WhatsApp group administrators (WGAs) in regulating it. Online passive participant observation method was used to collect data from sixteen purposively selected WhatsApp groups in Nigeria. Results indicate a high prevalence of gender, religious, political and ethnic hate speech in majority of the sampled WhatsApp groups. It also shows that hate speech generates tension and conflict among WhatsApp group participants. Moreover, the study reveals that most WGAs applied punitive measures against hate speech propagators. The findings advance the emerging area of online hate speech and brings to fore the conflict resolution, peacebuilding and third-party policing potentials of WhatsApp group administrators.

The emergence of the internet and social media has changed the ease of interaction and the position of humans where they are no longer just as consumers, but as producers and distributors of messages. Whatsapp as the top three social media platforms that are widely used in Indonesia is one of the most common social media circulating information on hoaxes and hate speeches. With the massive information circulating on social media, new media literacy has a very significant role. Lecturers as professional and well-educated people should be able to understand, analyze, assess, and criticize every information carried by social media. But lately there have been various cases of misuse of social media involving lecturers to the realm of law. This will be a threat because lecturers are professions that are used as role models and key opinion leaders in the society. Therefore, researchers are interested in understanding the experience of new media literacy in the dissemination of information on hoaxes and hate speech among social media lecturers, especially Whatsapp Group. Jenkins's theory of new media literacy is used in this qualitative research with an interpretive constructivism paradigm. The research method uses Edmund Husserl's classical phenomenology which emphasizes the essence of the subject (human consciousness) and its activities. The results show that Whatsapp Group is used as a form of communication and information exchange. Sharing is caring has a strong influence on lecturers to spread all the information that is on Whatsapp Group. The main reason for disseminating information related to perceptions of interests and usefulness of the information, so that sometimes the lecturers unwittingly spread hoaxes and hate speech.

A transparent analytical process contributes to the methodological rigor of reflexive thematic analysis. To enhance such transparency in reflexive thematic analysis, novice researchers need to document and present the analytical processes of theme development. In this article, we showcase how qualitative comparative analysis can be integrated into reflexive thematic analysis as a strategy for novice researchers. We demonstrate how novice researchers can develop codes and categories, use qualitative comparative analysis to facilitate the exploration of the complex causal relationships between categories, and construct candidate themes based on these analyses. We then show how novice researchers can continue developing these themes by creating relationships between codes and categories on the basis of qualitative data and existing literature. Such integration of methods not only facilitates theme development, but also assists researchers in justifying the decisions made in a reflexive thematic analysis process. The analytical procedures presented in this article may thus help novice researchers engaged in reflexive thematic analysis to enhance the transparency of their analytical process.

Violence against women is “the norm rather than the aberration” in Caribbean societies. Referring to domestic violence, this finding was stressed by Justice Barrow in the Martinus Francois v AG of St Lucia High Court case. However, such normalisation of violence in the Caribbean is not limited to the domestic sphere. This chapter shows that some Anglophone Caribbean States actually condone sexual violence through their laws. Narrow, heteronormative definitions of rape, constructions of grievous sexual assault and the conditional criminalisation of marital rape in a number of Caribbean laws preserve codes of femininity and masculinity that help perpetuate biased models of sexual violence victimisation and perpetration, by which heterosexual sexual violence in marital relations or against cis men, as well as same-sex sexual violence are undervalued or fully silenced by the law. Based on a legal feminist examination of Caribbean sexual violence laws, this chapter challenges the myopic construction of sexual violence in these laws and the resultant unequal protection afforded. It further argues that such laws not only align with discriminatory gender stereotyping, but also legitimise the normalisation of sexual violence.

WhatsApp groups have become a hotbed for the propagation of harmful content including misinformation, hate speech, polarizing content, and rumors, especially in Global South countries. Given the platform's end-to-end encryption, moderation responsibilities lie on group admins and members, who rarely contest such content. Another approach is fact-checking, which is unscalable, and can only contest factual content (e.g., misinformation) but not subjective content (e.g., hate speech). Drawing on recent literature, we explore deliberation---open and inclusive discussion---as an alternative. We investigate the role of a conversational agent in facilitating deliberation on harmful content in WhatsApp groups. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 21 Indian WhatsApp users, employing a design probe to showcase an example agent. Participants expressed the need for anonymity and recommended AI assistance to reduce the effort required in deliberation. They appreciated the agent's neutrality but pointed out the futility of deliberation in echo chamber groups. Our findings highlight design tensions for such an agent, including privacy versus group dynamics and freedom of speech in private spaces. We discuss the efficacy of deliberation using deliberative theory as a lens, compare deliberation with moderation and fact-checking, and provide design recommendations for future such systems. Ultimately, this work advances CSCW by offering insights into designing deliberative systems for combating harmful content in private group chats on social media.

The emergence of the internet and social media has changed the ease of interaction and the position of humans where they are no longer just as consumers, but as well as producers and distributors of messages. Whatsapp as the top three social media platforms that are widely used in Indonesia is one of the most common social media circulating information on hoaxes and hate speeches. With the massive information circulating on social media, digital literacy in new media has a very significant role. Lecturers as professional and well-educated people should be able to understand, analyze, assess, and criticize every information carried by social media. But lately there have been various cases of misuse of social media involving lecturers to the realm of law. This will be a threat because lecturers are professions that are used as role models and key opinion leaders in the society. Therefore, researchers are interested in understanding the experience of digital literacy of lecturers as Whatsapp group users in disseminating of information on hoaxes and hate speech. Jenkins's theory of new media literacy is used in this qualitative research with an interpretive constructivism paradigm. The research method uses Edmund Husserl's classical phenomenology which emphasizes the essence of the subject (human consciousness) and its activities. The results show that Whatsapp Group is used as a form of communication and information exchange. Sharing is caring has a strong influence on lecturers to spread all the information that is on Whatsapp Group. The main reason for disseminating information related to perceptions of interests and usefulness of the information, so that sometimes the lecturers unwittingly spread hoaxes and hate speech.

BackgroundPeople experiencing homelessness are at increased risk of violence and abuse, however, there is insufficient knowledge about rates of inquiry or readiness of healthcare professionals to address violence and abuse among this population. This study aimed to explore healthcare professionals’ experiences and perceptions of asking about violence and abuse among patients experiencing homelessness.MethodsThis study used a qualitative, interpretive, and exploratory design. We performed focus group discussions with healthcare professionals (n = 22) working at an integrative healthcare unit for people experiencing homelessness. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis, following Braun and Clarke’s six-phase approach. Findings are reported according to the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) checklist.ResultsThe overarching theme of the analysis is that addressing violence and abuse is at risk of “falling through the cracks”. The theme is supported by three sub-themes: Hesitance to address violence and abuse, The complex dynamics of violence and abuse in homelessness, and Challenges in addressing violence and abuse amidst competing priorities and collaborative efforts. The normalisation of violence and abuse within the context of homelessness perpetuates a “cycle” where the severity and urgency of addressing violence and abuse are overlooked or minimised, hindering effective interventions. Moreover, healthcare professionals themselves may inadvertently contribute to this normalisation. The hesitance expressed by healthcare professionals in addressing the issue further reinforces the prevailing belief that violence and abuse are inherent aspects of homelessness. This normalisation within the healthcare system adds another layer of complexity to addressing these issues effectively.ConclusionsThe findings underscore the need for targeted interventions and coordinated efforts that not only address the immediate physical needs of people experiencing homelessness but also challenge and reshape the normalised perceptions surrounding violence and abuse. By prioritising awareness, education, and supportive interventions, we can begin to “break the cycle” and provide a safer environment where violence and abuse are not accepted or overlooked.

Engaging boys and young men (BYM) is essential for preventing violence against women and girls, since BYM are predominantly the perpetrators of this violence; involving them in the solution is fundamental. Schools play a crucial role in challenging harmful gender norms, misogynistic attitudes, and the normalisation of violence. In this paper, we critically reflect on an exploratory project that explored teachers’ understandings of gender-based violence (GBV) in schools and the potential of working with BYM in school-based prevention and intervention work. The project was a collaboration between three researchers and a practising teacher who acted as a liaison between the researchers and participating schools. Utilising a mixed-methods approach and reflexive thematic analysis, we distributed a survey to three secondary schools in England. We then interviewed those who volunteered to talk about the main challenges of working with BYM around issues of GBV using vignettes. We found that teachers felt unprepared to identify and deal with incidents of GBV in their schools in general, never mind engaging in differentiated and specific ways of working with BYM that we expected would be visible in their explanations of current practice. We argue that the inclusion of BYM in GBV prevention and intervention work in schools should take place in spaces where teachers are supported, feel prepared, and work collaboratively, and that time is built into integrating comprehensive RSE, staff training, and robust safeguarding practices. We conclude that collaboration with specialist services can offer different avenues for action.

The current research examines the queer body as a site of negotiation for concepts such as identity, normative violence, resistance, and reclamation, within the Greek context, aiming to bridge the research gap in the qualitative exploration of embodied queer experience. Its objective is to understand how queer individuals experience and re-appropriate their bodies in response to the hegemonic pressure that often renders them dispossessed. The study employed body-mapping, a multimodal qualitative methodology, along with appreciative semi-structured interviews of ten queer participants in Athens. Findings, created through reflexive thematic analysis, highlight the complexity of queer experience and identify four main themes. The first one is concerned with experiences of social control and homo/transphobia, which give rise to feelings of shame, inadequacy, insecurity, and diminished bodily agency. The second theme addresses the psychosomatic imprint of performativity, including anxiety, dysphoria, psychosomatic pain, experiences of self-punishment and disconnection. The third thematic field refers to the fluid and non-linear (in terms of temporality) nature of identity negotiation and includes processes such as self and bodily acceptance and the ambivalence inherent in them. The fourth theme foregrounds authentic self-expression, joy, and the retooling of the body as a site of resistance, disidentification and creative reconstruction, deeply grounded in the support of the community and the mutual care it provides. This study serves as a contribution to the qualitative investigation of embodied queer experience in Greece, encouraging further research using arts-based methodologies that engage the body, as approaches such as this one constitute practices of beneficial intervention and open new pathways for understanding.

Thematic analysis is a widely cited method for analyzing qualitative data. As a team of graduate students, we sought to explore methods of data analysis that were grounded in qualitative philosophies and aligned with our orientation as applied health researchers. We identified reflexive thematic analysis, developed by Braun and Clarke, as an interpretive method firmly situated within a qualitative paradigm that would also have broad applicability within a range of qualitative health research designs. In this approach to analysis, the subjectivity of the researcher is recognized and viewed not as problematic but instead valued as integral to the analysis process. We therefore elected to explore reflexive thematic analysis, advance and apply our analytic skills in applied qualitative health research, and provide direction and technique for researchers interested in this method of analysis. In this paper, we describe how a multidisciplinary graduate student group of applied health researchers utilized Braun and Clarke’s approach to reflexive thematic analysis. Specifically, we explore and describe our team’s process of data analysis used to analyze focus group data from a study exploring postnatal care referral behavior by traditional birth attendants in Nigeria. This paper illustrates our experience in applying the six phases of reflexive thematic analysis as described by Braun and Clarke: (1) familiarizing oneself with the data, (2) generating codes, (3) constructing themes, (4) reviewing potential themes, (5) defining and naming themes, and (6) producing the report. We highlight our experiences through each phase, outline strategies to support analytic quality, and share practical activities to guide the use of reflexive thematic analysis within an applied health research context and when working within research teams.

Reflexive thematic analysis (reflexive TA) originated within psychology and the social sciences and has become an increasingly popular qualitative analytic method across a range of disciplines. In this article, we offer a brief methodological guide for researchers hoping to use the method, suitable for beginners through to those experienced in qualitative research. Reflexive TA can be used to analyze data generated via a range of methods. Reflexive TA is highly flexible, and we outline the choices that researchers need to address when conducting their research. These choices relate to the theoretical approach (realist through to relativist/experiential to critical), their orientation to analyzing the data (inductive to deductive), and the depth in which they analyze their dataset (semantic to latent). We offer an accessible but comprehensive discussion of the six phases of reflexive thematic analysis and how best to produce a rigorous analysis. Starting with familiarization of the dataset as a foundation for analysis, data are then coded, before using these codes to generate initial themes. These early themes are then reviewed and developed, before the researcher moves to defining and naming them. The final phase of analysis is the writing up of the research, at which point final changes may still be made to the results. Written from the basis of our experience of using, teaching, and training reflexive thematic analysis within psychology and the social sciences, we see it as useful for those working across a range of disciplines.

In March 2022, a Texas grand jury chose not to indict NFL quarterback Deshaun Watson with sexual misconduct, facilitating his trade from the Houston Texans to the Cleveland Browns. This study used publicly accessible Reddit posts ( n = 273) to explore sport fan conversations about Watson from the day a grand jury announced it would not indict him to the day the Cleveland Browns issued an official statement about the trade. I analyzed post text, top-level comments, and replies to the top-level comment on each post using reflexive thematic analysis. Results suggest that while most conversations about Watson avoided discussion of sexual violence, fans also supported or resisted rape culture. Few fans shared an intention to no longer support a team that traded for Watson, highlighting the cognitive dissonance fans may face when navigating opinions about sexual violence and the importance of fandom to their identity. The presence of conversations supporting rape culture and limited space for civil discussions of athlete-perpetrated violence may impact some fans’ attitudes toward sexual violence while making online fan communities an unsafe space for others. These findings have implications for understanding sport fan cultures vis-à-vis sexual violence and situational prevention targeting sport fans.