Abuse in the time of COVID-19: the effects of Brexit, gender and partisanship
Abuse in the time of COVID-19: the effects of Brexit, gender and partisanship
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DOI：
10.1108/oir-07-2022-0392
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发表时间：
2024-02-27
影响因子：
3.1
通讯作者：
Bontcheva，Kalina
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Bakir，Mehmet Emin;Farrell，Tracie;Bontcheva，Kalina
作者调查了COVID-19如何影响英国政客在与公众接触时受到的虐待的数量、类型或主题。这项工作涵盖了2019冠状病毒病在英国的第一年，从2020年3月到2021年3月，并分析了推特在回复英国国会议员时的滥用行为。作者收集并分析了1790万条回复议员的推文。作者介绍了大流行期间不同关键时刻的总体滥用水平，按性别分析了对国会议员的反应，以及网络滥用与英国脱欧、政府的COVID-19应对和政策以及社会问题等主题之间的关系。作者发现，2020年12月，英国国会议员受到的虐待程度达到了历史最高水平。女性（尤其是那些来自非白人背景的女性）受到了不同寻常的虐待，目标是她们的信誉和工作能力。与大选和英国脱欧等其他大型事件类似，COVID-19至少暂时提高了滥用程度。之前的研究分析了2017年和2019年英国大选前以及英国COVID-19大流行的头四个月对国会议员的虐待程度。作者将之前的研究结果与COVID-19第一年的研究结果进行了比较，因为大流行持续存在，英国脱欧即将到来。这项研究不仅有助于对英国政客的虐待趋势进行纵向比较，而且还提出了新的发现，证实，进一步澄清并提出了对先前研究结果的质疑。同行评议本文的同行评议历史可在：https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-07-2022-0392
PurposeThe authors investigate how COVID-19 has influenced the amount, type or topics of abuse that UK politicians receive when engaging with the public.Design/methodology/approachThis work covers the first year of COVID-19 in the UK, from March 2020 to March 2021 and analyses Twitter abuse in replies to UK MPs. The authors collected and analysed 17.9 million reply tweets to the MPs. The authors present overall abuse levels during different key moments of the pandemic, analysing reactions to MPs by gender and the relationship between online abuse and topics such as Brexit, the government’s COVID-19 response and policies, and social issues.FindingsThe authors have found that abuse levels towards UK MPs were at an all-time high in December 2020. Women (particularly those from non-White backgrounds) receive unusual amounts of abuse, targeting their credibility and capacity to do their jobs. Similar to other large events like general elections and Brexit, COVID-19 has elevated abuse levels, at least temporarily.Originality/valuePrevious studies analysed abuse levels towards MPs in the run-up to the 2017 and 2019 UK General Elections and during the first four months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. The authors compare previous findings with those of the first year of COVID-19, as the pandemic persisted, and Brexit was forthcoming. This research not only contributes to the longitudinal comparison of abuse trends against UK politicians but also presents new findings, corroborates, further clarifies and raises questions about the previous findings.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-07-2022-0392