Hate speeches and violent communication facing digital press content in Ecuador

Abstract

Technological globalization brought with it new scenarios of interaction marked by rules and dynamics different from offline communication. In the specific case of this research, the interest was focused on examining how, in the face of acts of gender violence spread on digital media platforms, a sector of the audience manifests hate speech and violent communication. The specific objectives aimed at identifying and explaining the categories of violent communication and hate speech, the forms of interaction, and the communicative elements used by users. A quantitative methodological strategy was followed; for this, content analysis was used, and a matrix was extracted as an instrument. The units of analysis were 1,013 comments and 3,055 reactions produced in three national advocacy events and published on the Facebook platforms of the media outlets El Comercio, La Gaceta, and Codigo Focus. Among the most relevant results, a higher frequency of hate speech and violent communication in cases involving migrants and persons deprived of liberty (ppl) stands out. In the same way, there is evidence of a predominance of imaginaries that legitimize forms of upbringing based on violence. In addition, the way in which these expressions are reaffirmed with the reaction I like is peculiar and, less frequently, reactions of the type I am angry or sad are noticed.