Drawing on the insights from Media Proximization Approach (MPA), the present chapter explores the dynamics of the online construction of the Other in the context of current refugee crisis and the phenomenon of hate speech within cyberspace. While content- and theme-wise, it takes under scrutiny online refugee-related discourses, on the theoretical and methodological level it presents a new approach to mediated construction of social reality based on the notion of distance and Self/Other or Us/Them dichotomy. Coached within (Cognitive) Critical Discourse Analysis, such an approach calls for an integration of corpus linguistics methods and tools. The chapter addresses the following questions: (1) How do the structural and functional features of online communication facilitate the spread of hateful and radical messages? (2) What is the perception of hate speech targeted at refugees and immigrants among Polish people (aged 18–35)? (3) What are the recurrent linguistic means, as well as the underlying cognitive and discursive mechanisms, of representing refugees as the Other? (4) How are salience and conceptualisation, related to representation of the Other and proximization strategies, manifested in keywords and word co-occurrence patterns? (5) What is the interface between othering and hate speech? Some of the findings presented in this chapter are based on the analyses conducted within the European project C.O.N.T.A.C.T., which focuses on exploration of various aspects of hate speech and hate crime in ten EU countries.
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Economic migration, international mobility and refugee crises have brought about both risks and opportunities. Alongside the socio-economic and cultural potential to capitalize on they have generated challenges that need to be addressed. In such an increasingly globalized and diverse world, intercultural competences have become strategic resources underpinning the concept of democratic citizenship and social integration. The objectives of the present article are thus two-fold: firstly we want to explore the concept of cultural cognition and highlight the importance of intercultural and diversity awareness, and, secondly, we intend to present and discuss the results of intercultural training sessions for uniformed services conducted within the “Open Lodz” project (Otwarta Łódź POWR.03.01.00-IP.08-00-3MU/18) (2019-2022) coordinated by the University of Lodz in collaboration with the Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź, the Municipal Police, the City of Lodz Office and the City Guard in Łódź. The project was aimed at enhancing foreigners’ quality of life and functioning in Poland. With this goal in view project activities, addressed at two groups of beneficiaries, namely foreign nationals and frontline workers (police, city guard officers, and municipal clerks) focused on improving communication skills (linguistic and cultural competences)
Internet as a Space for Debate on Cultural Pluralism. Perception of Online Hate Speech Targeted at Refugees/Economic Migrants Being an online space where members of the society can freely and instantaneously exchange their opinions, the Internet has become an ultra-attractive site for extended socio-political debate. At the same time, however, anonymity and global accessibility have transformed it into a tool facilitating the spread of hateful and radical messages, in particular those exploiting religious, ethnic and cultural differences. While multiculturalism and the “Other” have long been the subject of public debate, within this new mediatized public sphere problems and controversies surrounding them have thus acquired a new dimension. What can be observed is increasing social acceptance of verbal abuse and aggression in online communication, especially when it comes to attacks levelled at various “Others”. The article discusses the problem of multiculturalism and otherness in the Polish context, legal definitions used by the EU in their judgments on online hate speech, as well as the perception of hate speech targeted at refugees and immigrants among Polish people (aged 18-35). Some of the findings presented here are based on analyses conducted within the European project C.O.N.T.A.C.T., exploring various aspects of hate speech and hate crime in ten EU countries.
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