Negative Discourse Research Articles

Anger, fear, and frozenness: Exploring the emotive aspect of anti-police sentiment

Anti-police sentiment has emerged as a growing phenomenon in recent years, characterised by intense negative attitudes towards police. Despite increasing scholarly interest, the lack of a clear definition of anti-police sentiment hinders conceptualisation, measurement, and comparison of findings across jurisdictions. This study aims to provide conceptual clarity by employing sentiment analysis to systematically and objectively explore the emotions underlying anti-police sentiment. Analysis of the negative discourse across 1140 comments on Reddit about police, found that anti-police sentiment is associated with the emotions anger, fear, and frozenness, and potentially may trigger fight, flight, freeze responses in citizens encountering the police. Further, analysis of frequent terms highlights key social issues driving anti-police sentiment, such as police responses to domestic violence and police misconduct. The study contributes to the understanding of anti-police sentiment by identifying the underlying emotions and their potential behavioural outcomes, providing a foundation for future research and policy interventions.

Framing Chinese Youth in the Aftermath of the Cultural Revolution

Abstract The launching of the reform program in 1978 went hand in hand with praising Chinese youth as the vanguard of the new struggle for modernising China. Yet, the official rhetoric projected the ideal youth, while being at odds with the complex reality of the early post-Mao era, when the experience of the Cultural Revolution (CR) turned out to be the main reason for the so-called ‘youth problem’. Both international and Chinese literature have highlighted that in the reform era, youth, intended as a social and cultural category or construct, came to be associated with less positive values, and the traditional discourse of ‘youth as hope’ proliferated along and intertwined with a negative discourse of ‘youth as trouble’. This paper looks at the re-emergence of the Communist Youth League (CYL) as a key institutional actor in setting the stage for the construction of a new social discourse on youth in the transitional period 1978–1981, when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership confronted with the need to deal with the tumultuous upheaval of the CR and its impact on youth on the one hand, and to push forward the reformist agenda on the other. By mainly relying on CYL sources (documents, internal publications and the official youth press), a part of which has been largely unexplored so far, it shows how the discourse on youth became complex and multifaceted in those historical circumstances, reflecting not just different views within the élite but also and most importantly the very tensions involved in the reform project. While the existence of the ‘youth problem’ led to establishing a causal nexus with the now condemned ultra-leftist tendencies associated with Lin Biao and the Gang of Four, the need to make sense of the complexity of youth boosted a heated debate on youth characteristics, with a number of cadres and adult experts affiliated to the CYL defining, describing and prescribing what Chinese youth were in ways that, by ensuring they had not been guilty as former Red Guards and recognising them as both victims and increasingly emancipated actors, eventually pushed forward a new idea of youth that conformed to the new modernization aims of the Party. Providing an assessment of the young generation and its inclinations in the aftermath of the CR eventually became the premise for facilitating the emergence of a new youth subjectivity, while envisioning the integration of the self within the broader collective and the coexistence of liberal values with traditional socialist ethics. The debate on youth characteristics reflected the complex changes taking place in China and was constitutive of a broader process that set the stage for rethinking the socialisation of youth in the post-Mao era.

Mothers in doctoral education: Who cares? An ecological-systems analysis of support for PhD mums

PurposeIn light of a largely negative discourse, this study aims to identify the various ways in which PhD mums have been supported in a range of contexts to develop a comprehensive typology of positive support, as well as to identify patterns that transcend institutional, national and disciplinary borders.Design/methodology/approachThe study is guided by ecological systems theory which allows for the investigation of the various interrelated systems that influence (in this case) doctoral researchers. A mixed-methods survey elicited the first-hand experiences from recent and current PhD mums across the world.FindingsThe authors have identified a range of potential supports for PhD mums, but note a careful balance is needed to ensure that PhD mums are supported in their roles as both mother and doctoral researcher, where support in one domain does not contradict nor ignore support for the other.Originality/valueThis study complements the existing knowledge body, which consists mainly of localised studies, by providing a birds-eye view of issues that transcend national, geographic and disciplinary borders. A topography provides a visual map of the various sources of potential support and the complicated relationships between them.

Sexual risk and testing for sexually transmissible infections in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous young South Australians: results of an online survey.

Background Disproportionate rates of sexually transmissible infections (STIs) among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people are often attributed to risk-taking behaviours, but research rarely conducts direct comparison with their non-Indigenous peers to address this negative discourse. Methods 'Let's Talk About It 2019' was a cross-sectional online survey of South Australians (16-29 years). It prioritised recruitment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander respondents to compare behaviours with non-Indigenous peers using multivariable Poisson regression models. Results Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (n =231) and non-Indigenous (n =2062) respondents reported similar condom use (40% vs 43%, P =0.477) and sexual debut median ages (16 years vs 17 years). Higher proportions of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander respondents reported a recent health check (48% vs 38%, P =0.002), STIs (60% vs 49%, P P =0.006) testing, STI diagnosis (29% vs 21%, P =0.042), and intoxication during last sex (30% vs 18%, P Conclusions Behaviours associated with STI transmission were mostly similar among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous respondents. Higher STI/HIV testing among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander respondents suggests effectiveness of targeted programs. Interventions targeting substance use and condom use among all young people are needed. Future interventions need to focus beyond behaviours and explore social determinants of health and sexual networks as contributors to disproportionate STI rates.

Do I Have Symptoms of Dementia: A Discursive Study of Awareness and Shame Among People With Advanced Dementia.

This study explores the narrated experiences of individuals with advanced stages of late-onset dementia, focusing on their diagnosis awareness. Such framing is motivated by 2 reasons. Firstly, there is a lack of consensus regarding the prevalence of anosognosia among people with dementia. Secondly, research on anosognosia often neglects to address the important issues of shame and stigma associated with receiving a dementia diagnosis. For this qualitative study, a total of 27 participants ranging in age from 66 to 94 were involved. The data collected were analyzed using textual-oriented discourse analysis. Our findings indicated that individuals with dementia struggled to comprehend the medical terminology used to describe their experiences within biomedical standards. The interviewees utilized 5 negative discourses on dementia, which shaped their attitudes toward the condition and people diagnosed with it. These discourses depicted dementia as an illness, negative aging, a devaluation, a burden, and a life tragedy. Moreover, study participants did not outright reject the diagnosis but rather negotiated its acceptance within the context of shame associated with dementia. The concept of anosognosia can serve as a mechanism of social control and stigmatization of people with dementia within the dominant biomedical discourse.

Discursive subjugation and the ways out: Narratives of othering among Czech Roma mothers

This paper introduces the analysis of biographical interviews focusing on the negotiation of the day-to-day child-raising by Czech Roma mothers. We demonstrate the narrative reflection of ethnic identity, as well as coping strategies and ways out of the discursive subjugation of being marginalized by ethnic othering. We present coping strategies based on 1) vacillating between refusal and resigned acceptance of the negative discourse among the ethnic majority, 2) claiming normality through universal humanism, the submission of racialized microaggression, and the psychologizing of an aggressor, and 3) embracing family pride and social dissent. We find that primary socialization is an important element in tackling the discursive subjugation of ethnic othering. Further, we outline suggestions for the following research of othering mechanisms that seem to endure in European societies in terms of the reproduction of social inequalities. This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0 .

The experiences of menstruation in schools in high income countries: A systematic review and line‐of‐argument synthesis

AbstractMenstruation is a global public health issue with negative discourses of shame, embarrassment, and disgust. There is growing anecdotal evidence linking negative menstruation experiences at school to absenteeism. This systematic review and line‐of‐argument synthesis aims to develop a conceptual understanding of menstruation experiences in schools in high‐income countries. MEDLINE (Ovid), PsycINFO (Ovid), EMBASE (Ovid), HMIC (Ovid), and ERIC databases were searched. NVivo was used for thematic synthesis and reciprocal translation to generate third‐order constructs: overarching themes that interpretatively describe social processes around menstruation in schools. One thousand three hundred and thirty‐three studies were screened, with 19 meeting inclusion criteria. Six third‐order constructs were identified and integrated into a synthesized line‐of‐argument illustrating menstrual injustice at school. To ensure menstruating students do not face academic disadvantage because of schools’ failure to accommodate menstrual needs, schools should challenge stigma, provide facilities to improve students’ capability and confidence to manage menstruation, and provide academic support to menstruating students who miss classes. Future research should explore experiences of period poverty in HIC schools, examining the influence of gender identity, disability, race, and class on menstruation experiences.

Uncovering emotional and network dynamics in the speech of patients with chronic low back pain

BackgroundComputational linguistics allows an understanding of language structure and different forms of expression of patients’ perceptions. AimsThe aims of this study were (i) to carry out a descriptive analysis of the discourse of people with chronic low back pain using sentiment analysis (SA) and network analysis; (ii) to verify the correlation between patients’ profiles, pain intensity and disability levels with SA and network analysis; and (iii) to identify clusters in our sample according to language and SA using an unsupervised machine learning technique. MethodsWe performed a secondary analysis of a qualitative study including participants with chronic non-specific low back pain. We used the data related to participants’ feelings when they received the diagnosis. The SA and network analysis were performed using the Valence Aware Dictionary and sEntiment Reasoner, and the Speech Graph, respectively. Clustering was performed using the K-means algorithm. ResultsIn the SA, the mean composite score was −0.31 (Sd. = 0.58). Most participants presented a negative discourse (n = 41; 72%). Word Count (WC) and Largest Strongly connected Component (LSC) positively correlated with education. No statistically significant correlations were observed between pain intensity, disability levels, SA, and network analysis. Two clusters were identified in our sample. ConclusionThe SA showed that participants reported their feeling when describing the moment of the diagnosis using sentences with negative discourse. We did not find a statistically significant correlation between pain intensity, disability levels, SA, and network analysis. Education level presented positive correlation with WC and LSC.

Interfacing the semiosis of affect and crowdsourced spatialities in the context of post-panoptic surveillance. A case study of Safecity app

ABSTRACT The current study investigates the intersection between crowdsourcing apps and postdigital affective polarization of online communities as manifested in the mobile app Safecity. The main thesis is that the embodied, affective semiosis, as enacted by the app algorithmic agency and participants’ testimonials, produces a negative discourse of fear that may regulate the spatial actions of the putative app users. Safecity algorithms discursively frame, shape, and sort the app contents, contributing to the construction of new spatial repertoires. The resulting space is of a particular hybrid spatiality. First, it is divided down by being algorithmically entextualized as abstract de-territorialized space. Second, it is reassembled in different timescapes by different participants through a series of data flows. The ways in which sporadic incidents of harassment are recorded by past participants and then (re)interpreted by algorithmic rationality, the study concludes, should be treated as may be having consequences beyond warning other users, potentially altering larger spatial realities and instantiating ideologically-based spatial inequalities.

Moral Panic and Islamic Comic Preaching on Social Media: Study of @Iqomic on Instagram

The Instagram account @Iqomic (Islamic Quotes and Comics) has popularized preaching content about Islamic comics through social media. Islamic comics initiated by comic artists are a phenomenon. Iqomic was formed in a network of comic artist groups or communities consisting of social media content creators, professional and amateur comic artists. This article reviews the @Iqomic account on social media, especially the Instagram application. Iqomic is an Islamic comic preaching account whose mission is to spread goodness and convey Islam's blessings to all. In analyzing the Islamic comic da'wah movement carried out by the Icomic community, the author uses moral panic to explore how the Iqomic community spreads and mobilizes comic da'wah as an effort to fight negative discourse about Islam, such as anarchy, terrorism and radicalism in its environment. Islamic community itself. The author is of the opinion that, in response to the emergence of various negative discourses about Islam, Iqomic has succeeded in becoming a popular da'wah media by incorporating Islamic narratives into popular Islamic culture among teenagers and young adults, so that it has become one of the favorite platforms for sharing stories and being creative.

‘I’ve Wondered Why Am I Here?’ Expectations of Old Age and the Ageing Body in a Longitudinal Study of a Dance Group

Mainstream expectations of older age place pressure on individuals––both negative discourses focused upon frailty and isolation and successful ageing narratives that emphasize physical and mental exercise. This article considers whether older people can challenge damaging narratives through participating in the practice of modern dance. Over the course of 4 years, action research and ethnographic-based methods were used as the author worked with a dance company of seven members aged 69 to 89 as they created a modern dance piece. Data included fieldnotes, transcripts of individual interviews and group discussions and a video of the performance. A thematic analysis was applied. Moving away from a health perspective, the literature on ageing and lifestyle is advanced by in examining how the group’s creativity should be understood and valued. Participants went from presenting as active agers to developing a more accepting attitude towards their ageing body. The performance refashioned the space as a site of intergenerational connectivity as the dancers and audience co-produced narratives around the artistry of the older body. An original contribution to the work on embodiment is made by revealing how older men and women use dance differently to negotiate the ageing body. Findings have wider implications for research on inclusion by showing how the embodied practice of dance helps subvert expectations of older age.

Revisiting the Turkish-Israeli alliance of the 1990s

ABSTRACT The Turkish-Israeli ‘honeymoon’ of the 1990s has been explained by different concepts such as alliance, strategic partnership, or cooperation and friendship, with these concepts often used interchangeably. As a corollary of the Turkish official narrative, which is based on a national security approach, certain explanations were offered in justification of the close relationship, including shared traditional democratic culture and secular character, as well as conducive international atmosphere. According to this construction, Turkey had no option but to align with Israel. On the other hand, while the ‘honeymoon’ was often seen as a foreign policy issue directly affected by the military bureaucracy, negative discourses against Israel in domestic politics, and institutional challenges in the Turkish state structure were often ignored. By way of filling this lacuna, the present article evaluates the impact of domestic factors, including the capital-owning class, lobbies, and institutional changes in the Turkish security apparatus on Turkish-Israeli relations.

The discourse of right-wing radicals in online communities (using the example of the VK social network)

The object of the study are discourses that are broadcast by supporters of right-wing radical ideology in the relevant communities in the largest Russian social network VKontakte. The study of the discourse of right-wing radicals is an urgent topic of scientific and practical research in modern socio-political conditions. The study of the discourses of right-wing radicals helps to better understand the value-ideological attitudes of representatives of this group of political extremists and to reveal the rhetorical techniques and practices that they exploit in the process of mobilizing supporters. The analysis of the discourses of right-wing radicals in social media is especially relevant, since in the conditions of a digital society, the Internet is becoming the leading source of information for a significant part of the population. Four thematic types of discourses are identified – racist, anti-Soviet, anti-Semitic and social-populist discourses. Racist discourse is characteristic of the communities of the "new" and "alternative" right, while supporters of the "old", imperial right actively exploit the theme of anti-Soviet discourse. Anti-Semitic and social-populist discourses are rather poorly represented in the communities selected for the study. With the help of PolyAnalist software, six clusters of terms have been identified based on the occurrence in texts in right-wing radical communities: news, value, anti-migrant, historical, socio-economic. The analysis of the frequency of mentioning words in negative tonality and positive tonality in the posts of right-wing communities is carried out. There are two major objects to which the negative discourse is directed: the modern political regime in the Russian Federation and the Soviet period.

Did healthy life awareness affect the behavioral or cognitive avoidance attitude from COVID-19? An observational study.

This study purposed to evaluate the healthy life awareness (HLA) level versus the COVID-19 avoidance attitudes. A single-centered observational study was conducted in the Family Medicine Clinics of a tertiary hospital between April 30, 2021 and July 30, 2021. The HLA scale was used to determine the participants' HLA levels. In addition, the avoidance attitudes from the COVID-19 scale score assessed attitudes toward avoiding COVID-19. Data were analyzed with E-Picos (MediCRES) Statistical Programme. Of the 311 participants aged 30.79 ± 8.37 years, 58.52% (n = 182) were female and 41.48% (n = 129) were male. A negative relationship between the HLA and cognitive avoidance scores (r = -0.255, P < 0.001) and a positive relationship between HLA and behavioral avoidance scores (r = 0.119, P = 0.036) have been indicated. The results of a binary logistic regression, taking the presence of a higher HLA score as the dependent variable, have shown that high awareness was observed in women, approximately 1.7 times more than in men [odds ratio (OR): 1.684, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.058-2.696; P = 0.030]. Participants with high HLA had 1.06 times higher behavioral avoidance scores than others (OR: 1.066, 95% CI = 1.012-1.455; P = 0.049). As the cognitive avoidance score increased, the presence of high HLA decreased by nearly 33%. (OR: 0.666, 95% CI = 0.512-0.867; P = 0.002). This study emphasized that a higher HLA was associated with increased behavioral avoidance and decreased cognitive avoidance from COVID-19. HLA has led to doing what needed to be done without being affected by negative discourses.

TWITTER’DA KADIN POLİTİKA GAZETECİLERİNE YÖNELİK ÇEVRİM İÇİ TACİZ

Journalistic practices are negatively affected by digitalization and economic developments. In particular, digitalization both extends the working hours of journalists and makes them more accessible than ever before. The accessibility of journalists online exposes them not only to positive feedback but also to negative feedback. In this sense, one of the most important problems of journalists is online harassment. Therefore, this study analyzes the comments on political information, opinions or news shared by women journalists in Turkey on Twitter. In this context, the online harassment that political journalists in Turkey are exposed to on Twitter is analyzed. The study mainly aims to reveal the types of online harassment Turkish women political journalists face on Twitter. According to the results of the study, the majority (60.97%) of the comments made to women journalists consist of negative discourse.The most common negative discourse against women journalists (n=31,489) is swearing.The data obtained allows for the comparison of the types of online harassment faced by journalists in different countries and the identification of similarities and differences.

Agropastoralism and re-peasantisation: the importance of mobility and social networks in the páramos of Boyacá, Colombia

The páramos of Boyacá in Colombia are earmarked for delimitation to prevent the expansion of the agricultural frontier and protect endemic flora that contribute to water provision for cities. A varied conservation toolbox will be used, including the creation of protected areas for re-wilding and the ‘sustainable’ transitioning of livelihoods identified as environmentally destructive. Agriculture and cattle livestock farming has been identified for transitioning. Despite the negative discourse related to livestock holding, this paper argues that small-scale agropastoralism contributes to re-peasantisation and provides the foundations for an agrobiodiverse conservation approach. Agropastoralism facilitates re-peasantisation through strong socio-economic networks, interconnected communities, the solidarity economy, and self-management of natural resources. Whilst, agropastoral mobility spatially binds social networks across large and disconnected spaces. Mobility is also fundamental to dynamic land access and pasture management, as it prevents over-grazing. This exemplifies how resilient socio-economic networks and mobile production strategies could be harnessed for agrobiodiversity, instead of land sparing and other sedentary ‘green’ economies. This paper makes conceptual contributions to ‘autonomy’ in re-peasantisation by empirically demonstrating the importance of mobile and flexible systems of production. It also makes a novel methodological contribution in applying a spatial lens that further unpacks how movement across the páramos facilitates autonomy and re-peasantisation. These themes are explored using interview data from 53 semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders and small-scale agropastoralists from across the páramos and field observation. The paper concludes by recommending a harnessing of agropastoral knowledge, to potentiate agrobiodiversity, for a more socio-ecologically just approach to farming and conservation in the páramos.

Voices represented and voices silenced: Represented voices in the media coverage of the implementation of a supervised injecting facility

BackgroundVictoria's first medically supervised injecting room (MSIR) has remained controversial despite mounting evidence in support of the facility. The opposition to a policy idea is subject to a myriad of factors including the media. Favouring the opinions of various actors, the media are a fundamental element of the narrative formation process. In this article, we examine the voices represented and voice silenced in print news media and the possible effects of such reporting. MethodsA quantitative content and qualitative thematic analysis of Victorian print media (n=645) focusing on the implementation and continued operation of North Richmond Community Health's medically supervised injecting room was conducted. ResultsThe representations of the MSIR were debated by three predominant actors – politicians, public, and residents. Politicians largely relied on the ‘saving lives’ rhetoric when supporting the facility. In addition, competing representations of ‘public amenity’ were presented by both advocates and proponents of the MSIR. We found the voices of people who inject drugs were inadequately represented within the data. Instead, overdose statistics were featured as were discursive descriptions of people who inject drugs such as ‘addicts’, ‘junkies’, and ‘druggies’. ConclusionDespite people who inject drugs being the population the MSIR is designed to benefit, their experiences and voices were lacking, highlighting social power structures, denying the silenced power, and obstructing social change. Overdose rates were consistently presented as numbers, negating personal experiences and lacking meaningful debate. Further, negative discourse referring to people who inject drugs may have implications regarding internalised and externalised stigma and drug policy.

“They are deconstructing the city”: a typology of media narratives on tactical urbanism

ABSTRACT The present article examines the role of the media in (re)producing positive and negative discourses on tactical urbanism, through a case study of recent tactical urbanism measures in Barcelona. To this end, the article analyses 106 news items on tactical urbanism, published in two newspapers with contrasting ideological viewpoints. Through an inductive coding process, I map arguments put forward in favour of or against tactical interventions, and identify five main narrative frames on tactical urbanism (three negative and two positive): 1) “Disorder and decadence;” 2) “The war on cars;” 3) “Strangling the city;” 4) “The new hygienism;” and 5) “Reclaiming the street.” Negative frames criticise tactical urbanism primarily on aesthetic and procedural grounds, while positive frames tend to justify it through appeals to public health. In the Discussion, I suggest that emphasising the experimental nature of tactical urbanism might contribute to mitigate the polarisation of media frames on the topic.

Exploring Food Waste Conversations on Social Media: A Sentiment, Emotion, and Topic Analysis of Twitter Data

Food waste is a complex issue requiring novel approaches to understand and identify areas that could be leveraged for food waste reduction. Data science techniques such as sentiment analysis, emotion analysis, and topic modelling could be used to explore big-picture themes of food waste discussions. This paper aimed to examine food waste discussions on Twitter and identify priority areas for future food waste communication campaigns and interventions. Australian tweets containing food-waste-related search terms were extracted from the Twitter Application Programming Interface from 2019–2021 and analysed using sentiment and emotion engines. Topic modelling was conducted using Latent Dirichlet Allocation. Engagement was calculated as the sum of likes, retweets, replies, and quotes. There were 39,449 tweets collected over three years. Tweets were mostly negative in sentiment and angry in emotion. The topic model identified 13 key topics such as eating to save food waste, morals, economics, and packaging. Engagement was higher for tweets with polarising sentiments and negative emotions. Overall, our interdisciplinary analysis highlighted the negative discourse surrounding food waste discussions and identified priority areas for food waste communication. Data science techniques should be used in the future to monitor public perceptions and understand priority areas for food waste reduction.

Linguistic Representation of the Emotional State of «SURPRISE» in American English

The paper discusses major grammatical constructions that are used to describe the emotion of surprise in American English. Linguistic description of this emotion is difficult to formalize as this emotion is short-lived and is usually described in a clustered way. The linguistic material includes data from the Corpus of Contemporary American English. The paper focuses on grammatical constructions that are used by the speaker to describe their emotions rather than on lexemes that nominate emotional states. Corpus analysis shows that the whole range of grammatical constructions in question can be categorized into two groups: constructions with one proposition and constructions with two propositions. The use of constructions with two propositions allows for a more extended description of the emotion and to shift the focus to the reason, time or action. The paper also claims that, although the emotion of surprise is regarded as a neutral emotion, the grammatical construction, by itself, foregrounds a negative discourse prosody of the lexemes that nominate the emotion of surprise.