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Part of
Discourse Studies in Public Communication
Edited by Eliecer Crespo-Fernández
[Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture 92] 2021
► pp. 177–198

Chapter 8
Cyberbullying and gender

Exploring socially deviant behavioural practices among teenagers on Twitter

ORCID logo | Universidad de Alcalá , Spain

Over the last two decades, there is a growing body of feminist studies that discusses both the psychological and social benefits and the negative effects of social media use among teenagers. Using threads taken from Twitter, understood as a blend of social media, blogging, and texting, the present study aims to explore, from a gender-based approach, the discursive strategies and self-presentation strategies both male and female teenagers deploy and the impressions that they exhibit when they verbally abuse and victimise others in their own threads or somebody else’s. The study of male and female interpersonal socially deviant practices on Twitter not only provides a number of preliminary answers to why gender matters in the study of cyberbullying, but also casts light on a gender-sensitive construction of the used gendered strategies in verbal cyberbullying. Furthermore, the study makes it possible to address essential linkages between the micro-level (i.e., the individual) and the macro-level (i.e., the social action in this public sphere).

Keywords: public discourse, Twitter, cyberbullying, discourse analysis, gender
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Disclosure of personal information, impression management, and cyberbullying
  • 3.Engendering cyberbullying on Twitter
  • 4.Method
    • 4.1Cyberbullying sample
    • 4.2Measures and coding process
    • 4.3Analysis of sequences
  • 5.Analysis
    • 5.1Public communication: Topics discussed and disclosure of personal information
    • 5.2Interpersonal behavioural practices: Exploring male self-presentation strategies
    • 5.3Interpersonal behavioural practices: Exploring female self-presentation strategies
  • 6.Discussion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 7 April 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.92.08gar
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