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I Correct or Canceling You: Political Correctness and Cancel Culture on Social Media – The Case of Twitter Communication in Italy

I Correct or Canceling You: Political Correctness and Cancel Culture on Social Media – The Case of Twitter Communication in Italy

Cristiano Felaco (University of Naples Federico II, Italy), Jacopo Nocerino (University of Naples Federico II, Italy), Jessica Parola (University of Naples Federico II, Italy), and Roberta Tofani (University of Naples Federico II, Italy)
Copyright: © 2023 |Pages: 18
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-7472-3.ch023
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Abstract

This contribution studies the debated terms “politically correct” and “cancel culture” on Twitter and in particular investigates the meaning that people give when they label something or someone as politically correct or indicate a case of cancel culture in the Italian context, where they are not yet widespread as they are in the USA and Britain. A textual analysis of a corpus of tweets selected through a set of hashtags was carried out to identify thematic clusters to understand features and meanings given to these expressions, along with their ways of using in the various situations and contexts. The main results show different meanings of the term, in the negative sense as a limitation of freedom of speech, and in a positive sense as the exclusion of some terms that may offend some people or groups. In this case, the meaning of a word is relative and depends on the situation and context in which it is used. Furthermore, the recourse in the discourses of cancel culture is only rhetorical; there are no actions of cancellation or boycott of someone or something.
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Political Correctness And Cancel Culture On Social Media

Political correctness is, in general, the rejection of language and behavior that could be offensive to others, especially relating to sex and race, suggesting for instance the use of “gay” instead of “sodomite” or “faggot”, “African Americans” or “Black people” instead of “nigger”.

The history of political correctness is complex. This expression had neither a linear nor continuous development, it picked up steam around 1990, peaks between 1991 and 1995, and gradually its diffusion reduced over time (Lakoff, 2000). Nevertheless, PC never is over or come back, remains very much a contested issue (Hartman, 2015). Also from a semantic point of view (Gallie, 1956; Connolly, 1993) “an agreed, clear, literal meaning [of PC] in the way that grammatical correctness or political corruption do” is lacked (Hughes, 2010:17).

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