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“Amusing ourselves to death”: Mechanisms in cyberbullying prompted by rumors and denigration amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in China

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  • Li, Wanqi

Abstract

The use of rumors and denigration in cyberbullying have been studied in the contexts of public opinion and public policy, but questions remain. The study presented here examines the association of rumors and denigration with cyberbullying during the COVID-19 pandemic and provides a sentiment evolution and social network map of cyberbullying features at different stages of an episode. This study applied latent dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic modeling, sentiment analysis and semantic network analysis to analyze three Chinese cases where rumors and denigration triggered cyberbullying, with 7691 comments. The authors found that cyberbullying caused by rumors and denigration often started with the release of fake information, and core topics and sentiment values varied between stages of the cyberbullying episode. Collective moral disengagement theory suggests collective behavior may reduce moral self-control, generating online interactive behaviors that enhance the spread of rumors and denigration. Spiral of silence theory also offers perspectives on cyberbullying, which are considered in this study. While the cases in this study occurred within the context of COVID-19, cyberbullying via rumor and denigration may occur in many scenarios, so the current paper will interest multiple audiences. The findings of this study suggest that researchers and decision-makers could helpfully design programs to supervise public opinion, raise awareness of cyberbullying and avoid secondary harms.

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  • Li, Wanqi, 2024. "“Amusing ourselves to death”: Mechanisms in cyberbullying prompted by rumors and denigration amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in China," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:teinso:v:76:y:2024:i:c:s0160791x23002518
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2023.102446
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Changli Zhang & Daniel Zeng & Jiexun Li & Fei‐Yue Wang & Wanli Zuo, 2009. "Sentiment analysis of Chinese documents: From sentence to document level," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 60(12), pages 2474-2487, December.
    2. Cuiyan Wang & Riyu Pan & Xiaoyang Wan & Yilin Tan & Linkang Xu & Cyrus S. Ho & Roger C. Ho, 2020. "Immediate Psychological Responses and Associated Factors during the Initial Stage of the 2019 Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Epidemic among the General Population in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(5), pages 1-25, March.
    3. Jorge J. Varela & Cristóbal Hernández & Rafael Miranda & Christopher P. Barlett & Matías E. Rodríguez-Rivas, 2022. "Victims of Cyberbullying: Feeling Loneliness and Depression among Youth and Adult Chileans during the Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(10), pages 1-15, May.
    4. Frances Bowen & Kate Blackmon, 2003. "Spirals of Silence: The Dynamic Effects of Diversity on Organizational Voice," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(6), pages 1393-1417, September.
    5. Islam, A.K.M. Najmul & Laato, Samuli & Talukder, Shamim & Sutinen, Erkki, 2020. "Misinformation sharing and social media fatigue during COVID-19: An affordance and cognitive load perspective," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    6. Shan Lu & Lingbo Zhao & Lizu Lai & Congrong Shi & Wanyue Jiang, 2022. "How Do Chinese People View Cyberbullying? A Text Analysis Based on Social Media," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-13, February.
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