The Role of Gender in Hate Speech Targeting Politicians : Evidence from Finnish Twitter
Abstract
This study uses a manually classified tweet sample for examining hate speech targeting the ministers of the government of Finland. We use logistic regressions to investigate the distribution of hate speech by gender, age, party leadership, visibility, and political party, with a special focus on gender. Additionally, we divide minister portfolios into masculine, neutral, and feminine positions and examine whether a minister’s gender affects the likelihood of being targeted. Our results suggest that male and female ministers are equally likely, on average, to be targeted by hate speech. However, this relation is nuanced. First, for male ministers, visibility increases the frequency of hate speech. For female ministers, the result is the opposite. Moreover, the results suggest that women in masculine positions are more likely to face hate speech. In addition, men are targeted by hate speech less when they are holding a masculine minister portfolio. This suggests that gender roles affect hate speech.
Main Author
Format
Articles
Research article
Published
2024
Series
Subjects
Publication in research information system
Publisher
Springer
The permanent address of the publication
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:jyu-202408205573Use this for linking
Review status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0891-4486
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-024-09476-3
Language
English
Published in
International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society
Citation
- Meriläinen, J.-M. (2024). The Role of Gender in Hate Speech Targeting Politicians : Evidence from Finnish Twitter. International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, Early online. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-024-09476-3
Funder(s)
OP Group Research Foundation
Funding program(s)
Foundation
Säätiö
Additional information about funding
Open Access funding provided by University of Jyväskylä (JYU). This work was supported by the OP Group Research Foundation (grant numbers 20210195, 20200211) and the Foundation of Economic Education (grant number 200198).
Copyright© The Author(s) 2024