As the fifth estate, social media influence public discourses. Previously tabooed contents and language are becoming normalised. But also forms of organised counter speech have been developing as an answer to hate speech. In this presentation, forms of counter speech in German and Finnish social media will be analysed.
Social media are also called the fifth estate (or fifth power) that form a new control body and may thus fulfill democratic functions (Bunz 2012). Increasingly, they influence public discourses and have moral brisance (Burkhard 2015) because media and politicians gladly pick up scandalising topics. Social media have enabled the development of hate speech in dimensions never seen before. With reference to freedom of speech, previously tabooed contents and language are becoming de-tabooed and accepted. Wodak (2015) talks about shameless normalisation. But also forms of organised counter speech have been developing in social media as an answer to fake news, as well as direct and indirect hate speech. In this presentation, I will analyse which forms of counterspeech appear to be especially popular in German and Finnish social media and which aims and strategies are employed.
Bunz, Mercedes 2012. Die fünfte Gewalt: Über digitale Öffentlichkeit und die Neuausrichtung von Journalismus und Politik. In: Rußmann, Uta u.a. (Hrsg.): Grenzenlose Enthüllungen. Medien zwischen Öffnung und Schließung. Innsbruck. University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/791.
Burkhard, Steffen 2015. Medienskandale: Zur moralischen Sprengkraft öffentlicher Diskurse. 2., überarbeitete und ergänzte Auflage. Köln: Halem.
Wodak, Ruth 2018. Vom Rand in die Mitte – „Schamlose Normalisierung". Polit. Vierteljahresschrift 59: 323–335. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11615-018-0079-7 P
