Cover not available

Article published In: Hate Speech in Online Media
Edited by Anton Granvik, Mélanie Buchart and Hartmut Lenk
[Internet Pragmatics 6:2] 2023
► pp. 219–238

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

When your neighbor becomes a threat

How COVID-19 divided a community in online discussions

ORCiD logo with link | University of Helsinki
Published online: 2 October 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ip.00095.pak
Abstract
This paper analyzes how a series of online COVID-19-related discussions in a public social media group divided a community consisting of part-time and permanent residents. The group is a general discussion forum aimed at the inhabitants of a relatively small Finnish municipality. The discussions took place in March-April 2020, and the recurring topic was the potential danger posed by holiday home owners, who permanent residents feared would bring the virus with them. The discussions escalated quickly, and several threads went on simultaneously for some weeks. In the discussions, an ingroup and an outgroup were instantly formed. The material is analyzed from the point of view of categorization analysis, hate speech and metapragmatics. I examine the course of the discussions, and topics such as responsible behavior, health, and money. In addition, I also examine the metapragmatic utterances and sequences, which steadily increased during the discussions, and take a critical stance toward them. The research method employed will be qualitative content analysis.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Categorization, hate speech, and metapragmatic utterances
    • 2.1Hate speech
    • 2.2Metapragmatic utterances or metacommentary
  • 3.Material and method
  • 4.Analysis
    • 4.1The course of the discourse
    • 4.2Categories: The vulnerable ingroup and the affronted outgroup
    • 4.3Hate speech or just angry words?
    • 4.4Disbelief, discontent and disgust: The Metacommentary, i.e., metapragmatic utterances and sequences
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
References (23)
References
Aaltola, Mika. 2012. Understanding the Politics of Pandemic Scares: An Introduction to Global Politosomatics. Abingdon: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2021. Democratic Vulnerability and Autocratic Meddling: The “Thucydidean Brink” in Regressive Geopolical Competition. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Assimakopoulos, Stavros, Fabienne H. Baider, and Sharon Millar. 2017. Online Hate Speech in the European Union: A Discourse-Analytic Perspective. Cham: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Caffi, Claudia. 1998. “Metapragmatics.” In Concise Encyclopedia of Pragmatics, ed. by Jacob L. Mey, 581–586. Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Culpeper, Jonathan. 2010. “Conventionalised impoliteness formulae.” Journal of Pragmatics 421: 3232–3245. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Herneaho, Irina. 2018. “Maahanmuuttodiskurssit eduskuntapuolueiden vuoden 2015 vaalimateriaaleissa [Discourses of immigration in parliamentary parties’ political platforms 2015].” Virittäjä 21: 187–223. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Johansson, Marjut, Sanna-Kaisa Tanskanen, and Jan Chovanec. 2021. “Practices of convergence and controversy in digital discourses.” In Analyzing Digital Discourses: Between Convergence and Controversy, ed. By Marjut Johansson, Sanna-Kaisa Tanskanen, and Jan Chovanec, 1–24. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jokinen, Arja, Kirsi Juhila, and Eero Suoninen. 2012. Kategoriat, kulttuuri & moraali: Johdatus kategoria-analyysiin [Categories, Culture & Morality: An Introduction to Category Analysis]. Helsinki: SKS.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kleinke, Sonja, and Birte Bös. 2015. “Intergroup rudeness and the metapragmatics of its negotiation in online discussion fora.” Pragmatics 25(1): 47–71.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Määttä, Simo, Karita Suomalainen, and Ulla Tuomarla. 2020. “Maahanmuuttovastaisen ideologian ja ryhmäidentiteetin rakentuminen Suomi24 –keskustelussa [Constructing anti-immigration ideology and group identity in an online conversation thread on the Suomi24 discussion board].” Virittäjä 2/20201: 190–216. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2021. “Everyday discourse as a space of citizenship: The linguistic construction of in-groups and out-groups in online discussion boards.” Citizenship Studies 25(6): 773–790. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Márquez Reiter, Rosina. 2021. “Confessions of lockdown breaches: Problematising morality during the Covid-19 pandemic.” Journal of Pragmatics 1791: 61–69. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Miles, Matthew B., and A. Michael Huberman. 1994. Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook (2nd edn.). Thousand Oaks: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ogbodo, Jude Nwakpoke, Emmanuel Chike Onwe, Joseph Chukwu, Chinedu Jude Nwasum, Ekwutosi Sanita Nwakpu, Simon Ugochukwu Nwanko, Samuel Nwamini, Stephen Elem, and Nelson Iroabuchi Ogbaeja. 2020. “Communicating health crisis: A content analysis of global media framing of COVID-19.” Health Promotion Perspectives 10(3): 257–269. [URL].
Pälli, Pekka. 2003. “Ihmisryhmä diskurssissa ja diskurssina [Human group in discourse and as discourse].” Academic dissertation, Tampere University Press.
Pitkänen, Kati, Olga Hannonen, Stefania Toso, Nick Gallent, Iqbal Hamiduddin, Greg Halseth, C. Michael Hall, Dieter K. Müller, Andrey Treivish, and Tatiana Nefodova. 2020. “Second homes during corona – safe or unsafe haven and for whom? Reflections from researchers from around the world.” Finnish Journal of Tourism Research 16(2): 20–39. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pitkänen, Kati, Jenni Lehtimäki, and Riikka Puhakka. 2020. “How do rural second homes affect human health and well-being? Review of potential impacts.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17(18): 6748. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tajfel, Henri. 1981. Human Groups and Social Categories. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tanskanen, Sanna-Kaisa. 2007. “Metapragmatic utterances in computer-mediated interaction.” In Metapragmatics in Use, ed. by Wolfram Bublitz, and Axel Hübler, 87–106. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2018. “Identity and metapragmatic acts in a student forum discussion thread.” In The Discursive Construction of Identities On- and Offline: Personal – Group – Collective, ed. by Birte Bös, Sonja Kleinke, Sandra Mollin, and Nuria Hernández, 133–151. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Taylor, John R. 2003. Linguistic Categorization (3rd edn.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tuomarla, Ulla. 2019. “Vihapuhe ei ole aina vihaista puhetta [Hate speech is not always angry speech].” [URL] (accessed 20 August 2021).
Verschueren, Jef. 2000. “Notes on the role of metapragmatic awareness in language use.” Pragmatics 10(4): 439–456.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue