The Constructive Role of the Media in Hate Speech Controversies: The Valtònyc and Hasél Cases

ABSTRACT

Social networks such as Twitter can promote social alarm about conflicts concerning anti-hate speech legislation. The protests after the prison sentences of the rappers Valtònyc (2018) and Hasél (2021) are two paradigmatic cases in Spain. This research analyses how citizens’ desire to combat hate speech may be frustrated when the law is applied. Using a quantitative and qualitative methodology, we observe the users and the media reactions on Twitter in both cases. In the first phase, we conducted a content analysis (n = 694) to identify the position of users and the media. In a second phase, discourse analysis examined the presence or absence of the features of constructive journalism in the news coverage. The results show that the anti-law stance is predominant in Twitter messages, but there are few references to freedom of expression and censorship. While there is a considerable presence of an angry style of communication and polarised messages in users’ tweets, the media adopt a rational and informative approach. The media discourse in both cases is still far from the traits of constructive journalism. Therefore, this research shows that informative actions based on the principles of constructive journalism could mediate between citizen sensibility and legislation. This could promote a sense of citizenship that avoids hate speech.

KEYWORDS:

• Hate speech
• constructive journalism
• social networks
• polarisation
• freedom of expression
• Twitter

Acknowledgments

Javier Cantón (Profesor Ayudante Doctor de la Universidad de Granada), Rubén Pérez Ibáñez (Profesor Asociado de la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya). We thank the data coding team: Irene Ramírez Pérez-Nievas, Aitana García-Egea, Asier Aldea Esnaola, María Tejero Margarit, Leyre Santos Vidal, Paola Bernal Hirata and Inés Gentile García.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Declaration of Interest Statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 This research is part of the project Digital Unav, Communication and Digital Society, Universidad de Navarra.

2 Público: “BREAKING NEWS: The rapper Valtonyc will go to prison for insulting the king and singing that ‘the Bourbons are thieves’”.

3 Prime Minister of Franco dictatorship until his assassination by the terrorist group ETA in December 1973.

4 Público: “Valtonyc: ‘It seems that the judges are experts in hip hop but then they don't know who M. Rajoy is’"; VilaWeb: “The Supreme Court sends rapper @valtonyc to prison for three and a half years for this song”.

5 Público: “'Valtònyc's procés judge complains in 'La Razón' (newspaper) that pro-independence parties cannot be illegalised”.

6 Mongolia Magazine: “As the rapper @Valtonyc has been sentenced to three and a half years for insulting the King, we ask for the same sentence for Marta Sánchez (singer)”; El Jueves: “Remember that you can't say that the Bourbons are thieves, or that King Juan Carlos goes whoring with our money, or that Carrero Blanco was a high-flying politician. Our support to the rapper Valtonyc”.

7 ElDiario.es: “Thousands of people demand freedom for Pablo Hasel in Barcelona and 80 other Catalan towns and cities”.