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Spanish Political Communication and Hate Speech on Twitter During the Russian Invasion of Ukraine
[journal article]
Abstract Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the polarized discourse of the West vs. Russia seems to have escalated to levels similar to those during the Cold War period. The aim of this article, which is centered on the case of Spain, is to discover to what extent communication from ... view more
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the polarized discourse of the West vs. Russia seems to have escalated to levels similar to those during the Cold War period. The aim of this article, which is centered on the case of Spain, is to discover to what extent communication from political parties contributed to such polarization by encouraging hate speech. To this end, messages sent by the political parties represented in the Spanish parliament, over the social network Twitter during the first 60 days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, were analyzed: A total of 3,186 tweets from 67 official accounts, both from these political parties and their main leaders, were coded. The results showed that despite social networks in general - and Twitter in particular - being a favorable environment for the promotion of hate speech, the communication of Spanish political parties was generally characterized by political correctness and moderation. The presence of the main indicators of hate speech analyzed (threats, criticism, ridicule, or insults) was very minor. The present article associates this finding to other variables such as the tone of the tweets (informative, opinionated), their scope (international, national), and engagement (replies, quotes, retweets), among other factors. It is concluded that Spanish political authorities had a socially-responsible behavior in the case analyzed, reinforcing the importance of public diplomacy to counteract hate speech.... view less
Keywords
Russia; Spain; twitter; Ukraine; political communication; polarization; party; social responsibility; social network; hate; language usage
Classification
Media Contents, Content Analysis
Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture
Interactive, electronic Media
Free Keywords
hate speech; political parties; political social responsibility
Document language
English
Publication Year
2023
Page/Pages
p. 160-174
Journal
Politics and Governance, 11 (2023) 2
Issue topic
Hate Speech, Demonization, Polarization, and Political Social Responsibility
ISSN
2183-2463
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed