Hate speech and internet humour

magistrsko delo

Aja Lovrec (Author), Katja Plemenitaš (Mentor)

Abstract

There are different ways of perceiving and understanding humour. Some people comprehend the content on the internet social sites as humorous, others as hateful. The aim of this master's thesis is to raise awareness of hate speech on the internet. The survey was designed for the purpose of highlighting the difference between hate speech and humour in the example of internet memes. There were 513 Slovene participants answering the questionnaire on how they understand selected internet memes - as humour or as hate speech. The sample of English native speakers was smaller (57 respondents), yet enough to compare the results based on different independent variables (English language proficiency and gender). It was confirmed that there is a thin line between hate speech and humour. Some memes that were considered humorous for Slovene respondents were understood as offensive for English native speakers. We concluded that the level of English proficiency does not significantly influence considering memes as humorous or hate speech. The independent variable of gender has some influence on the respondens perception of a meme as humorous or hateful. Based on the survey analysis, it is concluded that memes which might be perceived as hate speech could also be understood as humorous due to the general purpose of a meme (memes are meant to be humorous and funny).

Keywords

hate speech;humour;internet memes;human rights;free speech;master theses;

Data

Language:	English
Year of publishing:	2014
Typology:	2.09 - Master's Thesis
Organization:	UM FF - Faculty of Arts
Publisher:	[A. Lovrec]
UDC:	316.647.5:004.738.5(043.2)
COBISS:	20823816
Views:	2773
Downloads:	300
Average score:	0 (0 votes)
Metadata:

Other data

Secondary language:	Slovenian
Secondary title:	Sovražni govor v internetnem humorju
Secondary abstract:	Humor ljudje razumejo in dojemajo na različne načine. Nekaterim se zdijo vsebine na internetnih socialnih omrežjih smešne, drugim sovražne. Namen pričujoče magistrske naloge je ozaveščanje javnosti o pojavljanju sovražnega govora na spletu. V nalogi je sovražni govor predstavljen v okviru internetnih humornih memov. Za namene naloge je bila oblikovana tudi anketa, v kateri je sodelovalo 513 Slovencev. Anketni vprašalnik so izpolnjevali glede na svoja prepričanja o tem, ali je predstavljeni internetni mem humoren ali sovražen. Kljub temu da je bil vzorec naravnih govorcev angleščine manjši (57 anketirancev), je bilo mogoče rezultate primerjati. Neodvisni spremenljivki v empiričnem delu analize sta bili znanje angleškega jezika in spol. Potrdili smo, da obstaja tanka linija med sovražnim govorom in humorjem. V nekaterih primerih so Slovenci meme dojeli kot humorne, medtem ko so naravni govorci angleščine te razumeli kot žaljive. Potrdili smo, da stopnja znanja angleškega jezika v veliki večini ne vpliva na odločitev, ali je sovražen ali humoren. Spol pa lahko vpliva na pozitivno ali negativno dojemanje mema. Iz rezultatov je razvidno, da so memi, ki so sicer dojeti kot sovražni govor, lahko razumljeni tudi kot humor, saj je namen internetnih memov razvedriti in nasmejati ljudi.
Secondary keywords:	sovražni govor;humor;internetni memi;človekove pravice;svoboda govora;magistrska dela;
URN:	URN:SI:UM:
Type (COBISS):	Master's thesis/paper
Thesis comment:	Univ. v Mariboru, Filozofska fak., Oddelek za anglistiko in amerikanistiko
Pages:	III, 95, 86 f.
ID:	8729860