Abstract
The rapid development of information and communication technologies contributes to the growth of social media channels, which also bring some problems such as cyberbullying. Previous studies have analyzed the prevalence and consequences of cyberbullying and the detection and prevention of it. However, little research pays attention to cyberbullying on Chinese social media. This research uses the content analysis method to analyze cyberbullying on one of the biggest social media platforms in China, Weibo, focusing on language features and factors that influence the frequency of cyberbullying language in comments on key opinion leaders' (KOLs) posts. The findings reveal that most cyberbullying language on Weibo appears in the form of mildly offensive or ordinary words with special meanings and offensive references, rather than directly offensive words. In addition, this research found that KOL type and post content type interact to affect the frequency of cyberbullying language on Weibo. Overall, this research has made a valuable contribution to cyberbullying research.
TopIntroduction
With the rapid development of information and communication technologies, computer-mediated communication made a revolutionary leap in the late 20th century (Romiszowski & Mason, 1996; Steinmueller, 2000). At the same time, social media platforms have continuously emerged and developed providing more comprehensive, faster, and richer information (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010).
However, there are pros and cons of the Internet development. There is no doubt that the emergence and development of social media has brought different kinds of benefits. But at the same time, social media also provides a platform for people to conduct challenging and negative behavior such as cyberbullying (Sari & Camadan, 2016; Walrave & Heirman, 2011). Cyberbullying is aggressive, intentional, harmful behavior carried out by individuals or groups through electronic or digital media which inflict harm or discomfort on others (Patchin and Hinduja, 2006; Smith et al., 2008; Tokunaga, 2010). In recent years, cyberbullying occurs frequently on social media, which not only causes psychological harm to the victims but also “pollute” the network environment (Alim, 2017).
In the network era, humans have acquired an infinitely large new space — cyberspace, through the activities of text transmission. At the same time, online writing has become an important way for Chinese people to communicate or record in writing with the rapid expansion of the number of internet users (Wang, 2004). In the virtual cyberspace, communication has gained greater freedom than ever, and the mode of verbal communication has also changed. The cooperation of them results in the emergence of network language. Network language is a tool for Internet users to communicate in the virtual space, as well as a form of language to express their feelings and explain their views (Liu, 2008). This kind of language is not only the carrier of information in the network context but also the variant of social language (Li, 2020). Besides, the network language has been widely used and become popular because of its conciseness, convenience, innovation, liveliness, humor, and other advantages (Liu & Ning, 2004). However, there are no restrictions on the form and content of network language, and netizens are free to create, comment, and spread. As a result, cyberbullying language appeared at the same time with the function to insult, abuse, and slander other people on social media platforms.
Halliday (2011) argues that “it has become increasingly clear that language has the power to convince, deceive and, in fact, control.” (p.141) As a result, we “must choose our words carefully, and one day we will be able to measure the power of good and evil in our words” (Angelou, 2014). In other words, cyberbullying language and the bad consequences brought by it undoubtedly fully reflect the harm of malicious words.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Emotional Words: Emotional words express emotions, emotional processes, or functions, in order to either describe something or to express emotion directly.
Cursing Words: Cursing words in Chinese society the most commonly used term of abuse is the expression meaning ‘die’ or ‘death’ to initially act as powerfully threatening utterances expressing a wish to punish, injure or destroy something or someone.
Abusive Words: This kind of word category is very similar to swear or slang words in English, which is always considered obnoxious and rude when used to intimidate or humiliate an individual. Each single word or its portmanteau formations can be regarded as direct cyberbullying language due to its meaning and function.
Sexual Words: This type of word category is the most commonly used sexual words, which are always relevant to rudely suggestive anatomical or sexual matters with obscenity or sexual features in language to describe, satirize or insult the targets.
Idiomatic Set Phrases and Ordinary Words With Special Meanings: They are neutral words which appear in the dictionary and are normally used in daily communication. When they are used in the context of cyberbullying or sensitive cyberbullying, they always have abusive, sexual or cursing meanings.
Cyberbullying Words: In the context of this paper, cyberbullying words refer to directly or strongly offensive words, including cursing, sexual and abusive words.
Sensitive Cyberbullying Words: They refer to mildly offensive or ordinary objects with offensive references in the context, including emotional, emphatic and cathartic words, newly emerging words, idiomatic set phrases, and some ordinary words with special meanings.
Cyberbullying: Cyberbullying is any behavior performed through electronic or digital media by individuals or groups that repeatedly communicates hostile or aggressive messages intended to inflict harm or discomfort on others.
Newly Emerging Word: This type of word is always created by netizens, or words which have changed their meaning based on social culture or specific events. They appear and disappear quickly and have individualized meanings in certain situations or for certain groups.
Post Content Type: In this research, the content of 10 posts selected is examined, and classified into 6 types: selfie post, advertising post, opinion sharing about others post, statement/PR management post, opinion sharing about themselves post, and daily life post.
Emphatic and Cathartic Words: Emphatic and cathartic words are used to emphasize emotions in a negative or positive way.
KOL Type: There is an official KOL hot list on Weibo, Weibo classifies all KOLs into 25 types based on KOLs’ area of expertise.