Naslov
Online hostility against women in Croatia

Autori
Kunić, Tamara

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, prošireni sažetak, znanstveni

Izvornik
International Congress on Media, Gender and Sexualities: Representations, Literacies and Audiences / Masanet, Maria-Jose ; Soto-Sanfiel, María T. - Benasque, Španjolska : Benasque Pedro Pascual Science Centre (CCBPP), Benasque, Huesca, Spain, 2023, 59-62

ISBN
978-84-09-51965-1

Skup
International Congress on Media, Gender and Sexualities: Representations, Literacies and Audiences

Mjesto i datum
Benasque, Španjolska, 06.06.2023. - 10.06.2023

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
online hostility, gender violence, readers' comments, digital ethics

Sažetak
With the development of a global network of interactive audiences for whom digital technology has enabled broad aspects of communication, it was believed that virtual forums would become more democratic and sensitive to important social issues. Citizens can quickly and easily participate in the creation and sharing of media content, and one of the most popular ways to engage in public debate online is through readers' comments on news sites and social media. Various theorists (Habermas, 2006 ; Dahlberg, 2007 ; Borge Bravo and Santamarina Saez, 2016) have described how communication in online forums should be inclusive, argumentative, respectful, reflective and free. However, numerous studies show that readers' comments are often characterised by hostility and even hate speech (Ksiazek and Springer, 2020 ; Ruiz et al, 2011). The legal basis for protecting women from electronic violence is established in the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention) and the Council of Europe Additional Protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime (Blažinović Grgić, 2022), but violence against women and girls online, which includes unacceptable speech, is still not fully conceptualised or legally regulated at the European Union level. Online abuse encompasses a variety of tactics and malicious behaviours, ranging from sharing embarrassing or cruel content about a person to impersonation, doxing, stalking and electronic surveillance, as well as non- consensual use of photos and violent threats. Online harassment of women (cybermisogyny) is gender-based abuse specifically directed at women and girls online (Megarry, 2014 ; Womens Media Center, 2023). Hostility against women includes threats, insults, slurs and obscenities, as well as gender-based name-calling. Definitions of hostility from a normative perspective include qualifications such as hate speech, vulgar language, swearing and offensive language (Ksiazek and Springer 2020). Hostility in comments can be defined as "deliberate intent to attack someone or something and to provoke anger or resentment through name-calling, negative judgements of character, offensive remarks, profanity or insulting remarks" (Ksiazek, 2015: 854). Available research shows that women are disproportionately likely to be victims of certain forms of online violence compared to men (EIGE, 2017). The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE, 2017) warns that it is wrong to consider violence against women online as a completely separate phenomenon from violence in the "real world", but that it is more correct to consider it in its entirety. If we consider in this context that in Croatia a woman is physically abused every 15 minutes (MUP, 2022), it is necessary to examine socially unacceptable forms 60 of communication towards women that occupy a significant part of the media space and have an impact on changes in public perception. Due to its global, immediate and participatory nature, the internet can become a space where intolerant ideas and beliefs are expressed and disseminated, potentially leading to hate crimes (Lopez, Lopez, 2017). Research by the author (Kunić, 2022) and others (Manne, 2017 ; Zuckerberg, 2018) contributes to these arguments by focusing on unacceptable expressions directed at women, victims of violence. The paper published by the author last year examined the extent to which citizens use unacceptable language in comments on Croatian news sites against women who are victims of verbal and physical conflict. A quantitative content analysis and a sentiment analysis of 5041 readers' comments published on news sites 24sata.hr and Index.hr between December 2018 and June 2019 were conducted. The results showed that commenters predominantly have negative attitudes towards violence against women. Hostile remarks occur in 15.8% of comments, and 4.7% of hostile statements refer to women who are victims of conflict, indicating the existence of misogynistic rhetoric in the Croatian digital public space (Kunić, 2022). This literature review explores the contexts, approaches and new directions of research on online misogyny and hate speech within the new communicative paradigm of participatory media, like readers' comments on news sites and social media in Croatia. In order to reconstruct the new digital ethics of communication, three main problems need to be addressed - the digitalisation of media, the globalisation of media and the use of digital global media to spread intolerant ideology (Ward, 2021:23). The responsibility for the culture of communication in the new digital environment and as part of the media culture no longer lies only with the media professionals, but also with the amateurs, whom the media give more space every day and treat them as equal participants in the production of media content.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Informacijske i komunikacijske znanosti

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