Contextures of hate: Towards a systems theory of hate communication on social media platforms
Niklas Barth, Elke Wagner, Philipp Raab, Björn Wiegärtner · The Communication Review · 2023
We inquire into different perspectives and patterns of problematizing online hate speech within the social sciences from a systems-theoretical perspective.Our results identify five different research perspectives adopted by studies on the issue: (1) systematic perspectives on problems of operationalizing (online) hate speech; (2) intentionalist perspectives on actors and their motives; (3) consequentialist perspectives on victims of online hate speech; (4) perspectives on media affordances, infrastructures, and strategies of online hate speech; and finally, (5) normative perspectives on the consequences of online hate speech.Additionally, we want to propose a functionalist perspective on hate communication and, for this purpose, develop a systems-theoretical and media-sociological framework for analyzing online hate speech.A systems-theoretical perspective connects to a process-oriented paradigm of doing hate speech.Instead of asking what hate speech is, a systems-theoretical framework focuses on how different communicative contextures empirically produce different understandings of hate communication.We will make four research proposals: We will (1) conceptualize hate as hate communication, then proceed to ( 2) analyze different communicative contextures, (3) develop media archeology of negation and conflict communication, and finally (4) focus on the function of conflict and hate communication for the emergence of (counter-)publics.