Cyberbullying in the 2024 AFCON Final Match: A Discourse Analysis

Chiagozie Eburuaja

Abstract


Cyberbullying has become worrisome in recent time especially in
the face of attempts to mitigate or extirpate hate speech. This
study focuses on cyberbullying associated with the 2024 Africa
Cup of Nations (AFCON) final match with the purpose of
describing the discursive structure that characterizes it. The data
comprise ten comment threads of Instagram and Facebook posts
of @instablog9ja and @mazitundeednut on Nigeria’s loss to
Ivory Coast at the AFCON final match, which have been
observed for a period of six weeks. The principles of Critical
Discourse Analysis (CDA) have been applied and it is discovered
that cyberbullying take different forms, insult, threat, accusation,
name-calling, defamation, denigration, etc. in its discursive
structure. The effect of the discursive structure is social power
abuse, control and domination of the more powerful social group
of football fans over the less powerful football players. The study
concludes that online communities, like @instablog9ja and
@mazitundeednut, are social groups that abuse the social power
they have over football players and bully them especially when
their teams do not win their matches. It is therefore required that
civility should be maintained in online interactions as a
prerequisite for effective communication. Moreover, constructive
criticism should be adopted in online football commentaries by
football fans

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