A CDA Study of Twitter as a Tool for Inciting Violence

master's thesis

• Title (croatian): Kritička analiza diskursa o Twitteru kao instrumentu za poticanje nasilja
• Author: Doroteja Dežđek
• Mentor: Marina Grubišić (mentor)
• Committee member: Ivana Bašić (predsjednik povjerenstva)
• Committee member: Anđel Starčević (član povjerenstva)
• Granter: University of Zagreb; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; (Department of English language and literature); Zagreb
• Defense date and country: 2021-09-17, Croatia
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: HUMANISTIC SCIENCES; Philology; Anglistics

Abstract

After the events that took place at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021, Twitter has assessed that then-president Donald Trump has violated their policy on using Twitter to incite violence among other things. Due to the risk of further incitement of violence, Donald Trump’s account has been permanently suspended. In the context of broader events, this paper has examined in which ways the selected Tweets can be interpreted when it comes to inciting violence and how can Trump’s tweets be mobilized by various audiences. For the purpose of this research, a small-scale corpus containing 107 Tweets and Retweets was created. After presenting the theoretical framework and the research methodology, the corpus of the study was analyzed with the main focus put on the discursive strategies of the DHA. Other linguistic phenomena such as the representation of social actors were also investigated. The aim of this paper was to analyze the collected data and to determine if the Tweets in question may contribute to inciting violence. The results have shown that it can be presumed that the Tweets in question can increase the risk of violence due to the fact that Donald Trump chose not to condemn but rather endorse violent acts in some of the Tweets. The content of certain Tweets in the corpus can be perceived and received in a manner that could potentially lead to further violence.

Abstract (croatian)

Nakon napada na Kapitol Sjedinjenih Država 6. siječnja 2021., Twitter je ocijenio da je tadašnji predsjednik Donald Trump prekršio pravila platforme, pritom koristeći Twitter za poticanje nasilja i slično. Zbog opasnosti od daljnjeg poticanja nasilja, korisnički račun Donalda Trumpa trajno je suspendiran. U kontekstu širih događaja, ovaj je rad ispitao na koje se načine odabrani tweetovi mogu tumačiti po pitanju poticanje nasilja te kako ih mogu upotrijebiti različite skupine ljudi. Za potrebe ovog istraživanja, stvoren je mali korpus koji sadrži 107 tweetova i retweetova. Nakon predstavljanja teorijskog okvira i metodologije istraživanja, korpus istraživanje analiziran je s diskurzivnim strategijama pravca "DHA" u glavnom fokusu. Istraženi su i drugi jezični fenomeni poput zastupljenosti i prikazivanja društvenih aktera u diskursu. Cilj ovog rada bio je analizirati prikupljene podatke i utvrditi mogu li spomenuti tweetovi pridonijeti poticanju nasilja. Rezultati su pokazali da se može pretpostaviti da uključeni tweetovi mogu povećati rizik od nasilja zbog činjenice da je Donald Trump odlučio ne osuditi, već podržati nasilna djela u nekim tweetovima. Sadržaj određenih tweetova u korpusu može se percipirati i shvatiti na način koji bi potencijalno mogao dovesti do daljnjeg nasilja.

• Keywords: CDA; social media; Twitter; violence; Donald Trump
• Keywords (croatian): kritička analiza diskursa; društvene mreže; Twitter; nasilje; Donald Trump
• Language: english
• URN:NBN: urn:nbn:hr:131:247785
• Study programme: Title: English Language and Literature (double major); specializations in: Linguistics, Literature and Culture, Translation, TEFL; Course: Linguistics; Study programme type: university; Study level: graduate; Academic / professional title: magistar/magistra engleskog jezika i književnosti (magistar/magistra engleskog jezika i književnosti)
• Type of resource: Text
• File origin: Born digital
• Access conditions: Access restricted to students and staff of home institution
• Created on: 2021-09-22 08:10:42