Racist Discourse on social networks: a discourse analysis of Facebook posts in Italy
Keywords:
racist discourse, social networks, Facebook, discourse analysis, web discourse
Abstract
The paper addresses the way people elaborate and share resentment against immigrants on social networks. Since its beginning in 2008, the financial crisis established itself as the main topic in Italian media discourse, monopolizing almost the whole public debate. Although anti-immigrant discourse is not a novelty in the European public sphere, the long recession in Italy has strengthened this kind of feeling. At the same time social networks, especially Facebook, grew in popularity and importance, establishing itself as a powerful means of sharing information, objectives and opinions.
The corpus of our analysis is composed by status updates and images posted on four Facebook public pages related to anti-establishment or generic protest topics. Moreover, this kind of material easily circulates on other more general groups and pages and is frequently shared by ordinary users on their personal profiles.
The analysis explores some of the main issues in racist discourse (illegal arrivals, crime, social struggle and denial of racism). In our study we take into account lexical items, rhetorical forms (metaphors, hyperbole) and arguments employed to set immigrants as antagonists of ordinary Italian people. Our aim, therefore, is to understand how new media help to strengthen racist discourse in everyday interaction.
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References
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TURNER, John Charles (1981), “The experimental social psychology of intergroup behaviour”, in John TURNER and Howard GILES (eds.), Intergroup behaviour. Oxford: Blackwell, 66–101.
VAN DIJK, Teun Adrianus (1987), Communicating racism. Ethnic prejudice in thought and talk. Newbury Park: Sage.
VAN DIJK, Teun Adrianus (1988), News as discourse. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum.
VAN DIJK, Teun Adrianus (1991), Racism and the press. London: Routledge.
VAN DIJK, Teun Adrianus (1992), “Discourse and the denial of racism”, in «Discourse & Society» 3 (1), 87-118.
VAN DIJK, Teun Adrianus (1993), Elite Discourse and Racism. London: Sage.
VAN DIJK, Teun Adrianus (2000), Ideology and discourse. A multidisciplinary introduction, ‹http://www.discourses.org/OldBooks/Teun%20A%20van%20Dijk%20-%20Ideology%20and%20Discourse.pdf› [accessed June 28th 2014].
VAN LEEUWEN, Theo (1996), “The representation of social actors”, in Carmen Rosa CALDAS-COULTHARD and Malcolm COULTHARD (eds.), Texts and practices: Readings in Critical discourse analysis. London: Routledge, 32-70.
ANGOURI, Jo and WODAK, Ruth (2014), “‘They became big in the shadow of the crisis’: The Greek success story and the rise of the far right”, in «Discourse and Society» 25 (4), 540–565.
AUGOUSTINOS, Martha and EVERY, Danielle (2007), “The language of ‘race’ and prejudice: A discourse of denial, reason, and liberal-practical politics”, in «Journal of Language and Social Psychology» 26 (2), 123–141.
AUGOUSTINOS Martha and EVERY, Danielle (2010), “Accusations and denials of racism: Managing moral accountability in public discourse”, in «Discourse & Society» 21 (3), 251-256.
BILLIG, Michael (1988), “‘The Notion of ‘prejudice’. Some rhetorical and ideological aspects”, in «Text» 8 (1-2), 91-110.
BRACALENTI, Raffaele and ROSSI, Claudio (1998), “L’immagine dell’immigrato e dell’immigrazione attraverso la stampa quotidiana: una ricerca empirica svolta nell’area romana”, in Raffaele BRACALENTI and Claudio ROSSI (eds.), Immigrazione: l’accoglienza delle culture. Dalla scuola ai mass media, esempi concreti di intercultura. Roma: Edup, 103-136.
BURKE, Shani and GOODMAN, Simon (2012), “‘Bring back Hitler’s gas chambers’: Asylum seeking, Nazis and Facebook – a discursive analysis”, in «Discourse and society» 23 (1), 19-33.
CAPDEVILA, Rose and CALLAGHAN, Jane E. M. (2008), “‘It's not racist. It’s common sense’. A critical analysis of political discourse around asylum and immigration in the UK”, in «Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology» 18 (1), 1-16.
CASTELLS, Manuel (2000) [1996], The rise of the network society. 2nd edn. Oxford: Blackwell.
CECCARINI, Luigi and DI PIERDOMENICO, Martina (2010), “Info-nauti. Cittadini in rete”, in «Comunicazione politica» XI (3), 343-370.
COTESTA, Vittorio (1995), Noi e loro. Immigrazione e nuovi conflitti metropolitani. Messina: Rubbettino.
DAL LAGO, Alessandro (2009) [1999], Non-persone. L’esclusione dei migranti nella società globale. 2nd edn. Milano: Feltrinelli.
FAIRCLOUGH, Norman (1989), Language and power. London: Longman.
FAIRCLOUGH, Norman (1995), Media discourse. London: Arnold.
FOUCAULT, Michel (1972), The archaeology of knowledge and the discourse on language. New York: Pantheon.
GABRIELATOS, Costas and BAKER, Paul (2008), “Fleeing, sneaking, flooding: A corpus analysis of discursive constructions of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK press, 1996-2005”, in «Journal of English Linguistics» 36 (5), 5-38.
GOODMAN, Simon and BURKE, Shani (2011), “Discursive deracialization in talk about asylum seeking”, in «Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology» 21 (2), 111-123.
GROSSI, Giorgio (2004), L’opinione pubblica. Roma-Bari: Laterza.
HALL, Stuart (2000), “Who needs identity?”, in Paul DU GAY, Jessica EVANS, Peter REDMAN (eds.), Identity: A reader. London: Sage,15-30.
HALL, Stuart, Chas CRITCHER, Tony JEFFERSON, John CLARKE AND Brian ROBERTS (1978), Policing the crisis: Mugging, the state and law and order. London: Macmillan.
HOGG, Michael A. and ABRAMS, Dominic (2006) [1998], Social identifications. A social psychology of intergroup relations and group processes. London and New York: Routledge.
MANERI, Marcello (1998), “Lo straniero consensuale. La devianza degli immigrati come circolarità di pratiche e discorsi”, in Alessandro DAL LAGO (ed.), Lo straniero e il nemico. Materiali per l’etnografia contemporanea. Genova: Costa & Nolan, 236-272.
MINISTERO DELL’INTERNO (2007) Rapporto sulla criminalità in Italia. Analisi, Prevenzione, Contrasto.‹http://www.interno.gov.it/mininterno/export/sites/default/it/assets/files/14/0900_rapporto_criminalita.pdf› [accessed 2nd July 2014].
MONTALI, Lorenzo, RIVA, Paolo, FRIGERIO, Alessandra and MELE, Silvia (2013), “The representation of migrants in the Italian press. A study on the “Corriere della Sera” (1992–2009)”, in «Journal of Language and Politics» 12 (2), 226-250.
MOSCOVICI, Serge (1981), “On social representation”, in Joseph P. FORGAS (ed.) Social cognition: Perspectives on everyday understanding. London: Academic Press, 181-210.
ORRÙ, Paolo (2013), “Il Partito dell’amore e il partito dell’odio. Analisi linguistica del conflitto politico nell’Italia della Seconda Repubblica”, in «Letterature Straniere &, Quaderni della Facoltà di Lingue e Letterature Straniere dell’Università degli Studi di Cagliari» 14, 233-261.
QUASTHOFF, Uta M. (1989), “Social prejudice as a resource of power: towards the functional ambivalence of stereotypes”, in Ruth WODAK (ed.), Language, power and ideology: Studies in political discourse. Amsterdam: Johh Benjamins, 181-196.
REISIGL, Martin and WODAK, Ruth (2001), Discourse and discrimination: Rhetorics of racism and anti-semitism. London and New York: Routledge.
TAJFEL, Henri (1981a), Human Groups and Social Categories: Studies in social psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
TAJFEL, Henri (1981b), “Social Stereotypes and Social Groups”, in John. C. TURNER and Howard GILES (eds.), Intergroup behaviour. Oxford: Blackwell, 144-177.
TAJFEL, Henri and TURNER, John Charles (1985), “The social identity theory of intergroup behaviour”, in Stephen WORCHEL and William G. AUSTIN (eds.), Psychology of Intergroup Relations. Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 7-24.
TAYLOR, Charlotte (2009), “The Representation of Immigrants in the Italian Press”, in «CIRCaP Occasional Papers» 21, 1-40, ‹http://www.circap.org/uploads/1/8/1/6/18163511/occ_21_2009.pdf› [accessed July 16th 2014].
TER WAL, Jessica (2001), “Minacce territoriali, socio-economiche e di sicurezza. L’immagine degli immigrati nella stampa quotidiana”, in «Incontri» 16, 67-78.
TURNER, John Charles (1981), “The experimental social psychology of intergroup behaviour”, in John TURNER and Howard GILES (eds.), Intergroup behaviour. Oxford: Blackwell, 66–101.
VAN DIJK, Teun Adrianus (1987), Communicating racism. Ethnic prejudice in thought and talk. Newbury Park: Sage.
VAN DIJK, Teun Adrianus (1988), News as discourse. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum.
VAN DIJK, Teun Adrianus (1991), Racism and the press. London: Routledge.
VAN DIJK, Teun Adrianus (1992), “Discourse and the denial of racism”, in «Discourse & Society» 3 (1), 87-118.
VAN DIJK, Teun Adrianus (1993), Elite Discourse and Racism. London: Sage.
VAN DIJK, Teun Adrianus (2000), Ideology and discourse. A multidisciplinary introduction, ‹http://www.discourses.org/OldBooks/Teun%20A%20van%20Dijk%20-%20Ideology%20and%20Discourse.pdf› [accessed June 28th 2014].
VAN LEEUWEN, Theo (1996), “The representation of social actors”, in Carmen Rosa CALDAS-COULTHARD and Malcolm COULTHARD (eds.), Texts and practices: Readings in Critical discourse analysis. London: Routledge, 32-70.
Published
2014-12-31
How to Cite
Orrù, P. (2014). Racist Discourse on social networks: a discourse analysis of Facebook posts in Italy. Rhesis. International Journal of Linguistics, Philology and Literature, 5(1), 113-133. https://doi.org/10.13125/rhesis/5585
Section
Articoli
