“Despicable, Disgusting, Repulsive!!!” Public Emotions and Moralities in Online Discussions About Violence Towards Refugees

Pantti, Mervi

doi:10.1080/13183222.2016.1248099

Cited by 16 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Some previous studies on the Finnish media suggested that the focus of discussion around the refugee crisis was more Europe centred, meaning that the refugee crisis was portrayed as a European crisis, while refugees themselves were primarily depicted as a threat (Sumuvuori et al 2016;Vij 2016). This research also suggested that the news coverage shifted from European to national issues in late August 2015, when an increasing number of asylum seekers arrived in Finland, and the discourse on restricting their numbers intensified (Pantti 2016;Vij 2016). The same rhetorical shift was found in a longitudinal analysis of Finnish Prime Minister's accounts of the refugee crisis over a 1-year period, which shifted from a discourse of pathos and ethos to a discourse of logos and homogenization, emphasizing rationality to justify tightened immigration policies (Sakki and Pettersson 2018).…”

Section: Context Of the Study: Finlandmentioning

confidence: 90%

Visual (de)humanization: construction of Otherness in newspaper photographs of the refugee crisis

Martikainen

Sakki

2021

Ethnic and Racial Studies

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This study examines how Otherness is constructed visually in newspaper photographs of the refugee crisis. This visual rhetoric analysis examines the form, content, and function of images and explores the rhetorical strategies deployed in visualizations of the refugee crisis in a mainstream Finnish national newspaper from 2015 to 2016. The data consisted of 1,473 images. The study identified six rhetorical strategies used for dehumanizing refugees: massifying, separating, passivating, demonizing, individualizing, and recontextualizing the Other. The rhetorical strategies in turn constructed four discourses related to refugees, namely those of threat and victimhood aimed at dehumanizing as well as personhood and distance aimed at humanizing the Other. The paper contributes to the current knowledge on dehumanization and humanization of refugees in public discourse by unpacking the subtle visual mechanisms through which these processes occur.

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Section: Context Of the Study: Finlandmentioning

confidence: 90%

Visual (de)humanization: construction of Otherness in newspaper photographs of the refugee crisis

Martikainen

Sakki

2021

Ethnic and Racial Studies

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“…The Internet and social media have become ever more central fora for morality negotiation related to current social phenomena (Pantti, 2016). This makes online discussion fora fruitful sources of data that tap into processes of moral evaluation also in the context of dialogue focusing on violence.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Struggles for moral value and the reproduction of gendered and racialised hierarchies in online discussions of violence

Venäläinen

Virkki

2019

The Sociological Review

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The article examines online discussions in Finland that focus on violence committed by Finnish women, on one hand, and non-white migrant men, on the other. Drawing on the perspective of sociology of value, the article illustrates how these discussions function as sites of struggles over moral worth in a contemporary context characterised by crises of both male and white hegemony. The authors suggest that, through the discussions, these current crises are projected on migrant men and certain groups of women, who thereby become construed as morally reprehensible. The analysis sheds light on processes of (re-)legitimating the moral virtue historically attached to both masculinity and whiteness, and thereby shows how gendered and racialised hierarchies are reproduced in the context of meaning-making around the issue of violence. Also discussed is how these dynamics and the process of reproduction via discourse draw upon historically recurring meanings and evaluations while simultaneously tailored to contemporary circumstances. The tailoring is performed via explicit reference to the value of gender equality, which serves a dual function: re-inscribing moral value in white masculinity while excluding from the circuits of value both racialised masculinities and Finnish women portrayed as doing gender and whiteness in the ‘wrong’ way. These processes give the discussants room for justifying hate and violent exclusion of such women and migrant men while also muting any dissenting voices attempting to resist circulation of the derogatory meanings.

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“…A growing body of literature demonstrates the centrality of affects in the formation, circulation, and resistance of anti-immigration stances (e.g., Arias & Bryla, 2018;Nikunen, 2015;Pantti, 2016). This paper contributes to that scholarship a detailed analysis of affective dynamics linked with meaning making in the context of discussions that specifically focus on the threat of violence attached to migrants.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Affective (re)orientations in online discussions on the threat of violence posed by migrants

Virkki

Venäläinen

2020

Social Identities

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Online discussions are rife with fear-evoking images and meaning making that highlight a perceived threat to the security of European nations and their inhabitants posed by migrants' violence in the wake of increased immigration. This paper examines the role of emotions in shaping anti-immigration views as a response to the threat of violence attached to migrants in online conversations. Using a dataset of Finnish online discussion threads from 2015-2017 that were prompted by extensive media attention paid to various cases of violent crime in which migrants were suspects, we particularly analyse the affective dynamics of interpellation processes wherein discussants are invited to adopt anti-immigration orientations. This analysis demonstrates how emotions such as fear, hate, and love function together in complex ways to constitute and shift meanings constructed during these discussions. These processes afford the construction and adoption of affectively appealing identities that are based on the re-signification of anti-immigration orientations as morally and socially acceptable, such as 'normal citizen' and 'caring parent'. The analysis thus provides insight into processes in which 'ordinary' citizens hear, and respond to the call for xenophobic positions, thereby illustrating how a sense of community and caring for a community is built within these affective processes.

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“Despicable, Disgusting, Repulsive!!!” Public Emotions and Moralities in Online Discussions About Violence Towards Refugees

Cited by 16 publications

References 44 publications

Visual (de)humanization: construction of Otherness in newspaper photographs of the refugee crisis

Visual (de)humanization: construction of Otherness in newspaper photographs of the refugee crisis

Struggles for moral value and the reproduction of gendered and racialised hierarchies in online discussions of violence

Affective (re)orientations in online discussions on the threat of violence posed by migrants

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