Social media has led to a redefinition of the journalist’s role. Specifically on Twitter, these professionals assume an influential position and their discourse is dominated by personal opinions. Taking into consideration that this platform has proven to be a breeding ground for polarization, digital harassment and hate speech, notably against women politicians, this research aims to analyze journalists’ involvement in this complex scenario. The investigation aims to determine whether, immersed in online and gender defamation campaigns, journalists enhance the quality of public debate or, on the contrary, they reinforce the visibility of this hostile content. To this end, we examined a sample of 63,926 tweets published from 23 to 25 November 2022 related to a campaign of political violence against the Spanish Minister of Equality using Natural Language Processing tools and qualitative content analysis. Results show that during those three days, at least half of the tweets contained hate speech and improper language. In this climate of hostility, journalists participating in the debate not only have an ability to attract likes and retweets but also exhibit polarization and use hate speech. Each ideological position—for and against the Minister—is also reflected in their own uncivil strategies. Under the umbrella of free speech and regardless of argumentative discourses, those journalists who lean towards ideological progressivism tend to insult their opponents, and those on the political right use divisive constructions, stereotyping and irony as attack techniques.

中文翻译：

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记者的道德责任：通过自然语言处理技术应对社交媒体中针对女政客的仇恨言论


社交媒体导致了记者角色的重新定义。特别是在 Twitter 上，这些专业人士占据着有影响力的地位，他们的言论以个人观点为主。考虑到该平台已被证明是两极分化、数字骚扰和仇恨言论（尤其是针对女性政客的言论）的滋生地，本研究旨在分析记者对这一复杂场景的参与情况。该调查旨在确定记者在网络和性别诽谤活动中是否提高了公共辩论的质量，或者相反，他们是否增强了这种敌对内容的可见度。为此，我们使用自然语言处理工具和定性内容分析检查了 2022 年 11 月 23 日至 25 日发布的 63,926 条推文样本，这些推文涉及针对西班牙平等部长的政治暴力运动。结果显示，在这三天里，至少有一半的推文包含仇恨言论和不当语言。在这种敌对气氛下，参与辩论的记者不仅有能力吸引点赞和转发，而且还表现出两极分化并使用仇恨言论。每一种意识形态立场——支持或反对部长——也反映在他们自己的不文明策略中。在言论自由的保护下，不管争论性的话语如何，那些倾向意识形态进步主义的记者往往会侮辱他们的对手，而那些政治右翼则使用分裂性的建构、刻板印象和讽刺作为攻击手段。