We are excited to invite you to our next seminar of the Open DiscourseNet Seminar London, which will take place on Friday, 24 February 2023, 1-2pm (London time). We will hear Matthias Becker (Center for Research on Antisemitism at the Technical University Berlin) “Hate speech online: Reflections, Methods and Goals of the Decoding Antisemitism Project”.
A Zoom link will be sent out on the night before.
To join, please register with the OpenDNLondon group by Thursday evening to receive the Zoom link: https://discourseanalysis.net/DN/seminars/OpenDNLondon
We are looking forward to seeing you on 24th February.
Stefanie, Michael, Johannes and Jaspal
Abstract
The emergence of cyberspace and the evolution of computer-mediated communication have dramatically changed the way the individual relates to the world and interacts with other web users. The specificities of online communication such as anonymity and mutual reinforcement of web users have led to an increase of hate speech (Becker and Troschke, 2019; Monnier and Seoane, 2019).
This contribution aims at presenting the specifics of antisemitic content in comment sections of British, French and German mainstream media. Our studies focus on comments posted in reaction to articles which were likely to elicit antisemitic content such as the Arab-Israeli conflict, the COVID pandemic, the war on Ukraine, and antisemitic hate crimes in Europe.
The analysis reveals correlations between a discourse event, the catalogue of stereotypes and the linguistic-semiotic repertoire of antisemitic hate speech. Based on such approaches, it will be possible to measure current frequencies and to estimate future “trends” of antisemitic comments. Also, it proves that some antisemitic concepts are likely to be expressed implicitly (among others, conspiracy theories, allegations of Jewish evil, Nazi analogies, etc.) and that modern, allegedly critical forms of antisemitism seem to be often used as an ‘enabler’ for the reference to classic antisemitic stereotypes. Furthermore, the comparative approach of this study shows the importance of the context: depending on the country, the same discourse event can trigger different reactions and a variety of antisemitic tropes.