OMG U #Cyberbully! An Exploration of Public Discourse About Cyberbullying on Twitter

Abstract

Cyberbullying, defined as bullying that takes place using technology, includes similar tactics found in traditional bullying as well as unique approaches such as viral repetition. Nationally, prevalence rates for cyberbullying range from 10% to as high as 40% of school-aged children, depending on the definition and measurement tool applied. The current study examines public tweets with keywords and hashtags related to cyberbullying posted during May 2016, using both human evaluation and computer examination to answer the following research questions: (1) What is the sentiment of tweets using cyberbullying keywords/hashtags? (2) What is the thematic content of the tweets? (3) What is the relationship between coding by researchers versus automated coding by Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) software? and (4) What is the content of the URLs attached to the tweets? A unique aspect of this study is the examination of the content of URLs included in the tweets, with the finding that the majority of the accessible URL references were to material that was positively focused. The majority of sample tweets referred to a cyberbully situation, contributed to a negative atmosphere, included references to known individuals, and suggested ongoing cyberbullying events. Results from this study suggest an opportunity for researchers, educators, and public health practitioners to use discourse on social media to inform interventions, to educate and share information, and to promote social well-being and mental health.

#Cyberbullying in the digital age: Exploring people's opinions with text mining

“…Twitter has become a valuable source of information to explore peoples' behaviors and viewpoints about various public health and social issues (Karami, Dahl, Turner‐McGrievy, Kharrazi, & Shaw Jr, ). However, few studies (e.g., McHugh, Saperstein, & Gold, ) have used Twitter as a data source to explore people's viewpoints on cyberbullying. The present study will contribute to the literature by applying a textual analytics method to reveal people's cognition and perception about cyberbullying.…”

Inferring Opinions and Behavioral Characteristics of Gay Men with Large Scale Multilingual Text from Blued

“…Although GSN apps are widely used by the general population, public health practitioners and educators are just beginning to use this resource as a tool for research, education, and sharing information [29]. Our findings suggest that GSN apps can be used to reflect the behavior characteristics of gay men and identify individuals at risk of casual sex and HIV.…”

Bullying-Related Tweets: a Qualitative Examination of Perpetrators, Targets, and Helpers

“…Findings from Pyzalski ( 2012 ) suggest that in addition to bullying targets known offline, online spaces also allow for the cyberbullying of strangers, vulnerable individuals (for example, the homeless or alcoholics), celebrities, and specific groups (for example, fans of a certain band or football team). A qualitative analysis of cyberbullying-related tweets found that more than half (56.3%) included individuals known to the users, 29% had no clear subject, and 15% was referring to a celebrity or someone not personally known (McHugh et al, 2019 ).…”