IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/prg/jnlaip/v2021y2021i3id165p257-274.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Hateful and Other Negative Communication in Online Commenting Environments: Content, Structure and Targets

Author

Listed:
  • Vasja Vehovar
  • Dejan Jontes

Abstract

Information and communication technologies are increasingly interacting with modern societies. One specific manifestation of this interaction concerns hateful and other negative comments in online environments. Various terms appear to denote this communication, from flaming, indecency and intolerance to hate speech. However, there is still a lack of an umbrella term that broadly captures this communication. Therefore, this paper introduces the concept of socially unacceptable discourse, which serves as the basis for an empirical study that evaluated online comments scraped from the Facebook pages of the three most-visited Slovenian news outlets. Machine-learning algorithms were used to narrow the focus to topics related to refugees and LGBT rights. Ten thousand comments were manually coded to identify and structure socially undesirable discourse. The results show that about half of all comments belonged to this type of discourse, with a surprisingly stable level and structure across media (i.e., right-wing versus mainstream) and topics. Most of these comments could also be considered a potential violation of hate speech legislation. In the context of these findings, the political and ideological consequences and implications of mediatised emotions are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Vasja Vehovar & Dejan Jontes, 2021. "Hateful and Other Negative Communication in Online Commenting Environments: Content, Structure and Targets," Acta Informatica Pragensia, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2021(3), pages 257-274.
    • Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlaip:v:2021:y:2021:i:3:id:165:p:257-274
    DOI: 10.18267/j.aip.165
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://aip.vse.cz/doi/10.18267/j.aip.165.html
    Download Restriction: free of charge
    File URL: http://aip.vse.cz/doi/10.18267/j.aip.165.pdf
    Download Restriction: free of charge
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.18267/j.aip.165?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Oscar Westlund, 2021. "Advancing Research into Dark Participation," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(1), pages 209-214.
    2. repec:ces:ifodic:v:13:y:2016:i:4:p:19189885 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Daniel Leithold, 2016. "Asylum in Europe," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 13(4), pages 55-58, 02.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jesús C. Aguerri & Fernando Miró-Llinares & Ana B. Gómez-Bellvís, 2023. "Consensus on community guidelines: an experimental study on the legitimacy of content removal in social media," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-11, December.
    2. Iztok Šori & Vasja Vehovar, 2022. "Reported User-Generated Online Hate Speech: The ‘Ecosystem’, Frames, and Ideologies," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-19, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vasja Vehovar & Dejan Jontes, . "Hateful and Other Negative Communication in Online Commenting Environments: Content, Structure and Targets," Acta Informatica Pragensia, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 0.
    2. Kostas Kanellopoulos & Deniz Neriman Duru & Ulrike Zschache & Angelos Loukakis & Maria Kousis & Hans-Jörg Trenz, 2021. "Transnational Solidarity, Migration, and the Refugee Crisis: (In)Formal Organising and Political Environments in Greece, Germany, and Denmark," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 26(3), pages 717-738, September.
    3. Fadi W Adel & Eden Bernstein & Michael Tcheyan & Shane Ali & Heidi Worabo & Moshtagh Farokhi & Andrew E Muck, 2019. "San Antonio refugees: Their demographics, healthcare profiles, and how to better serve them," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(2), pages 1-16, February.
    4. Martina Burmann & Madhinee Valeyatheepillay, 2017. "Asylum Recognition Rates in the Top 5 EU Countries," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 15(02), pages 48-50, August.
    5. Dino Pitoski & Thomas J. Lampoltshammer & Peter Parycek, 2021. "Drivers of Human Migration: A Review of Scientific Evidence," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-16, January.
    6. Regina C. Serpa, 2021. "The Exceptional Becomes Everyday: Border Control, Attrition and Exclusion from Within," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-12, September.
    7. Thomas Grochtdreis & Hans-Helmut König & Steffi G. Riedel-Heller & Judith Dams, 2022. "Health-Related Quality of Life of Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Germany: a Cross-Sectional Study with Data from the German Socio-Economic Panel," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 17(1), pages 109-127, February.
    8. Jure Leko, 2017. "Migration Regimes and the Translation of Human Rights: On the Struggles for Recognition of Romani Migrants in Germany," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(3), pages 77-88.
    9. Charalampos Tsavdaroglou & Chrisa Giannopoulou & Chryssanthi Petropoulou & Ilias Pistikos, 2019. "Acts for Refugees’ Right to the City and Commoning Practices of Care-tizenship in Athens, Mytilene and Thessaloniki," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 119-130.
    10. d'Artis Kancs & Patrizio Lecca, 2018. "Long‐term social, economic and fiscal effects of immigration into the EU: The role of the integration policy," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(10), pages 2599-2630, October.
    11. Philip L. Martin, 2016. "Europe’s Migration Crisis: An American Perspective," Migration Letters, Migration Letters, vol. 13(2), pages 307-319, May.
    12. Silvia Loi & Daniela Vono de Vilhena, 2020. "Exclusion through statistical invisibility. An exploration on what can be known through publicly available datasets on irregular migration and the health status of this population in Germany," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2020-009, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    13. Blesse, Sebastian & Boyer, Pierre C. & Heinemann, Friedrich & Janeba, Eckhard, 2016. "Searching for a Franco-German consensus on the future of Europe: Survey results for Bundestag, Assemblée Nationale and Sénat," ZEW policy briefs 5/2016, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    14. Catherine Gladwell & Jennie Thomas & Georgina Chetwynd & Saliha Majeed & Carolyn Burke & Victoria Stubbs & Seemin Zahid, 2018. "The impact of educational achievement on the integration and wellbeing of Afghan refugee youth in the UK," WIDER Working Paper Series 57, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    15. Sonja Fransen & Hein de Haas, 2022. "Trends and Patterns of Global Refugee Migration," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 48(1), pages 97-128, March.
    16. Reinke, Hannes & Goller, Michael, 2022. "Supporting young immigrants in their transition from school to work? A staff perspective on challenges of vocational integration classes," International Journal for Research in Vocational Education and Training (IJRVET), European Research Network in Vocational Education and Training (VETNET), European Educational Research Association, vol. 9(1), pages 92-119.
    17. Helbling, Marc & Simon, Stephan & Schmid, Samuel D., 2020. "Restricting immigration to foster migrant integration? A comparative study across 22 European countries," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 46(13), pages 2603-2624.
    18. Christopher D. Smith & Jonas Helgertz & Kirk Scott, 2019. "Time and Generation: Parents’ Integration and Children’s School Performance in Sweden, 1989–2011," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 35(4), pages 719-750, October.
    19. Philipp Lutz & David Kaufmann & Anna Stünzi, 2020. "Humanitarian Protection as a European Public Good: The Strategic Role of States and Refugees," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(3), pages 757-775, May.
    20. Hamza Fadil & Shen Yi, 2019. "Effectiveness of Regional Protection Program (RPP) Rezim - International Protection Regime - European Union (EU) in Germany," Journal of Public Administration and Governance, Macrothink Institute, vol. 9(4), pages 164-180, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:prg:jnlaip:v:2021:y:2021:i:3:id:165:p:257-274. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Stanislav Vojir (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/uevsecz.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.