论文总字数：70013字

摘 要

互联网在带给我们便捷的同时，也带来一些潜在性的危害。网络语言暴力已成为一个越来越被公众所熟知的话题，然而我国国内与之相关的研究数目较少，尤其是针对大学生网络语言暴力的相关研究更是少数。因此，本文针对大学生网络语言暴力的认知展开研究，旨在了解我国大学生的网络语言暴力认知现状及成因，探讨针对我国大学生网络语言暴力的解决办法。

本文采用了问卷为主，访谈为辅的调查方法，针对全国范围大学在校生，随机抽取200人，进行了有关网络暴力认知现状的调查。在本次调查中，笔者发现大学生对于网络语言暴力现象均认同其普遍的危害性，尤其是对性格发展存在的不良影响，但是对何为网络语言暴力的认知却存在不足，且认知程度的高低与性别、网络使用频率、网络使用目的均有关系。本文同时针对大学生网络暴力现象的成因及解决措施进行了研究。

关键词：中国大学生；网络语言暴力；认知现状；成因；解决办法

Contents

Acknowledgements----------------------------------------------------------------- i

Abstract ii

摘要 iii

Contents iv

Chapter One Introduction 1

1.1 Background of the Study 1

1.2 Purpose and Significant of the Study 2

1.3 Layout of the Study ----------------------------------------------------------3

Chapter Two Literature Review 4

2.1Concept of Cyberbullying 4

2.2 Manifestation of Cyberbullying 5

2.3 Cause of Cyberbullying 6

2.4 Harm of Cyberbullying 8

2.5 Countermeasures for Cyberbullying 8

2.6 Summary 9

Chapter Three Methodology 11

3.1 Research Questions 11

3.2 Participants 11

3.3 Instruments 12

3.3.1 Questionnaire 12

3.3.2 Interview 14

3.4 Data Collection and Data Analysis 14

3.5 Summary----------------------------------------------------------------------15

Chapter Four Results and Discussion 16

4.1 Cognition of Cyberbullying 16

4.1.1 Cognitive level and Gender----------------------------------------------18

4.1.2 Cognitive level and Frequency of Using the Internet-----------------19

4.1.3 Cognitive level and Purpose of Use 20

4.1.4 Harm of Cyberbullying among College Students ---------------------20

4.1.5 Discussion 22

4.2 Causes of Cyberbullying among Chinese College Students 23

4.2.1 Results of the Research 23

4.2.2 Discussion 24

4.3 Countermeasures for Cyberbullying 25

4.3.1 Results of the Research 25

4.3.2 Discussion 26

4.4 Summary ------------------------------------------------------------------------27

Chapter Five Conclusions 28

5.1 Major Findings and Implications 28

5.2 Limitations 29

5.3 Future Research ----------------------------------------------------------------29

References 30

Appendix 35

Chapter One Introduction

This chapter is composed of three parts: the background of the study, the purpose and significance of the study, and the layout of the study.

1.1 Background of the study

Nowadays, with the popularity of science and technology, the Internet has already become a kind of product that influences all aspects of our life. It exerts its effect on people from different social classes and ages. On the one hand, we couldn’t deny the fact that the Internet truly brings great convenience and efficiency to our life. For instance, we break the barrier of time and place, and could establish the relationship with people all over the world within a short time. Also, modern people could obtain information they want instantly and spread it. All in all, the internet speeds up the flow of information and provides us an useful tool to explore the world.

Of course, in the virtual world of the Internet, it also requires communication. Thus, cyber language becomes an important tool in online communication. It is a kind of carrier to transmit and exchange information on the Internet for people with different languages. However, China, nowadays, is short of effective regulation measures and punitive measure from public authorities to have a good control of the Internet environment, which leads to the fact that those netizens when they communicate with others online they pay little attention to the words and means of expression they use on the Internet. With this problem getting worse, cyberbullying has become a new form of violence in the Internet world. The negative consequences it brings about have aroused the common concern all over the world.

Nowadays, online communication is especially popular among youngsters. For this group of people, the Internet not only brings its positive impact on them, but also the negative one, which includes cyberbullying. The prevalence of college-level cyberbullying ranges from 8% to 21% (Kraft amp; Wang, 2010) and may include receiving threatening text messages, sexually harassing messages, spreading rumors, and faking one’s identity (Walker, Sockman, amp; Koehn, 2011). Some previous studies show that victims of cyberbullying in America always suffer from a range of negative physical and psychological consequences, such as social anxiety and social withdrawal (Coelho amp; Romao, 2018), decreased self-esteem (Dukes, Stein, amp; Zane, 2009), and depression (Roth, Coles, amp; Heimberg, 2002). Most of the time, the sufferings of cyberbullying could last for a really long time upon human beings (Ttofi amp; Farrington, 2008).

Our domestic research on cyberbullying has already analyzed its origin, consequences, countermeasures, among others. However, a large number of existing studies aim at people from all ages, and there are a limited number of studies focusing on cyberbullying among the college students. Owing to the severe condition of cyberbullying and the importance of college students, the attention to the topic of cyberbullying among college students should be given more. Thus, the cyberbullying problem among college students requires us to lead further research.

1.2 Purpose and Significance of the study

For young adults, the transition to college life can be daunting and exciting. It can mean gaining unprecedented freedom, moving far from home, making new platonic and romantic relationships, and enduring a large quantity of homework and exams. These people are longing for new things, and also want to get involved in it. The Internet is something that they don’t have enough time to get in touch with during their early 18 years, because of the heavy burden of the college entrance examination in China. Once they get into colleges and have their own computer and cellphones, they are eager to explore everything in the Internet world. Thus, building a sound network environment is not only beneficial to their mind and body, but also help them develop a correct life outlook.

It is estimated that 38% of college students knew someone who had been cyberbullied, 21.9% had been cyberbullied, and 8.6% had cyberbullying someone else in America (Walker, Sockman, amp; Koehn, 2011). The similar result could also be found in other American scholars’ research. The cyberbullying experience could bring those college students many negative consequences, such as decreased academic performance (Juvonen, Wang, amp; Espinoza, 2011), dropping out of school (Jordan, McPartland, amp; Lara, 1999; Jozefowicz-Simbeni, 2008), anxiety and depression (Anthony, Wessler, amp; Sebian, 2010), suicidal or homicidal ideation and action (Duke, Pettingell, McMorris, amp; Borowsky, 2010). Therefore, investigations should be done in order to find out the current situation of cyberbullying in China, also the hidden motivations and the countermeasures.

According to the predecessors’ research, this study attempts to adopt the combination of quantitative and qualitative research to make some analysis concerning this topic. By analyzing the causes and the harm of cyberbullying, we could then develop some effective countermeasures. This study is aimed at appealing people’s attention about the cyberbullying among college students, and also providing some references to the scholars and experts in this field for their future research.

1.3 Layout of the study

This paper is composed of four chapters.

Chapter One is aimed at introducing the background of cyberbullying phenomenon, and also the purpose and significance of the study.

Chapter Two is the literature review of concept, manifestation, cause, harm and countermeasures concerning cyberbullying phenomenon.

Chapter Three will introduce the methodology of this research, including research questions, participants, instruments amp; data collection and data analysis.

Chapter Four is the core part of this research. From the data we collected, we will give the results about cognitive level about cyberbullying among college students and also its causes and countermeasures.

Chapter Five is the conclusion part. From the major findings we drew, we will give the implications of the study and also point out its limitations and suggestions for the future research.

Chapter Two Literature Review

This chapter aims at providing a detailed review about cyberbullying. The previous studies about cyberbullying have already provided the concept, the manifestation of cyberbullying, also some causes and countermeasures concerning this topic. The foreign studies about cyberbullying among college students are something requiring more attention to them. With this detailed literature review, the research gap will be found out.

2.1 Concept of Cyberbullying

Bullying takes different forms at different ages, and grows in diversity. Physical violence is the prevalent form of bullying. This abuse typically evolves into verbal or social bullying, often with one or more bullies excluding or manipulating their victim through several mediums. The popularity of social media has made this form of bullying more prevalent, as technology-based platforms allow perpetrators to share hurtful words and images anonymously. This is now known as cyberbullying.

We couldn’t deny the fact that there is no consensus about cyberbullying. According to Willard (2005), cyberbullying, to some extent, means being cruel to another person ‘‘by sending or posting harmful material or engaging in other forms of social aggression using the Internet and other digital technologies’’. Thus, when a person or a group develops repeated and hostile behaviors with the intent of harming others, it is a kind of cyberbullying behavior (Belsey, 2005). Hinduja and Patchin (2009) presented a very simple definition of cyberbullying which could involve all its main characteristics, that is: ‘‘cyberbullying is willful and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers, cell phones and other electronic devices’’. Hence, cyberbullying can be considered a bullying problem that takes place in new territory (Li, 2012). The act is repeated over time against a victim that cannot easily defend him or herself (Hinduja amp; Patchin, 2009).

In our domestic studies, a consensus couldn’t be reached either. Yang (2014) defines cyberbullying as an act of violence related to verbal or oral language in the online space. Wei (2012) holds the point of view that cyberbullying refers to the attacks with the use of violent language via the network, directly or indirectly attacking other people, causing damage to their mental world. Tian (2012) argues that cyberbullying is a kind of soft violence, a kind of changing pattern of physical bullying in the real world, which takes place in the Internet world.

Cyberbullying can be seen as a continuation of bullying, however, this phenomenon is not limited only to this. It is of a more complex nature. Thus, its typology is varied and multifaceted (Amado, Matos, Pessoa, amp; Jäger, 2009).

In the present study, cyberbullying is defined as the abusive attacks on the Internet that use language as a medium to target specific objects. Using the Internet as the basic carrier, in the form of language hegemony, through direct or indirect use of language such as defamation, defamation, contempt, ridicule, etc., causing violations and damages to the personal dignity, mental and mental health of others.

2.2 Manifestation of Cyberbullying

The phenomenon of cyberbullying could take place on the Internet through various digital ways. Often, young individuals cannot be classified solely as the ‘‘victim’’ or the ‘‘perpetrator’’, because they may be a victim, a perpetrator, and/ or an observer on several occasions (Espelage amp; Swearer, 2003). Smith et al. (2008) distinguished seven distinct sub-categories according to the way victims are targeted. Thus, the sub categories are: text messages, picture/video clips; phone calls; emails; chat rooms; instant messaging and via websites. More recently, Ellison and Boyd (2013) indicated that cyberbullying is mostly practiced through the use of social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Google Plus and LinkedIn, which are considered networked communication platforms. Individuals participating in these platforms have distinctive profiles that can be comprised of user-supplied content, content provided by other users, and/or system-provided data.

According to the study conducted by Tian, Song and Li (2012), cyberbullying can take place in following different forms:

1）Rumor spreading. College students, when they spread uncertified or unreliable information, this would bring damage to the victims and then causing moral injuries. With the spreading of those rumors, even without some aggressive language, the victims would also encounter some confusion and hurt.

2）Fling abuses and offensive language. There is also a kind of situation that the victims have no fault, but owing to the rumors on the Internet, they have to endure the slander and offensive language attack; Another case is that the victims truly have their own faults, but the degree of attack that they suffer from has already beyond what they should undertake, and even out of bear.

3）The abuse of cyber manhunt. Cyber manhunt is a special search engine which uses participation of the Internet users to provide, filter and finally find the requested information. The fact is that cyber manhunt is not the standard of the real truth. Maybe it could exert the effect of supervision, but the abuse of it would finally bring about serious consequence, such as revealing privacy.

4）Internet Kuso. Kuso means a kind of act on the Internet spreading some affairs happened recently in a fun way. Internet Kuso subvert tradition, advocate personality and satirize society. This is a kind of new way of expression. As a result, this behavior itself has no praise or blame. However, when such behavior is driven by evil motivation, it would certainly bring about bad effect.

2.3 Cause of Cyberbullying

From the researches about the causes of cyberbullying, we could mainly find the following aspects. The character of anonymity of the Internet itself could be one of the main causes. Cyberbullying is always done via any electronic devices. Thus, cyberbullying could remain anonymous, and this kind of behavior could last for months or even longer without finding the real perpetrator (Barlett amp; Gentile, 2012). Anonymity could also mean that cyberbullying may target someone who even doesn’t know about that. Another factor relating to anonymity is named as disinhibition effect. According to Mason (2008) and Willard (2005), anonymity breeds reduction in concern for others' perceptions. And this is true even when the perpetrator knows the victim.

Another important cause for cyberbullying is about the psychological aspects. Dilmac (2009) conducted a research which involves 666 undergraduate students who were predicted past engagement in cyberbullying and future engagement in each. With regression analysis, the author discovered certain personality traits regarding cyberbullying. For instance, intraception (trying to understand others’ or self-behavior) and aggression predicted engagement in and future engagement in cyberbullying. Endurance predicted exposure to cyberbullying but a negative predictor of future engagement in cyberbullying. Wei (2012) considered that collective psychology was a kind of psychological cause for cyberbullying. Most online groups are formed related to the similar interests. As a result, individual members need to make compromise with other members in order to avoid the conflicts. Cyberbullying is a kind of behavior for them to maintain such belonging to the online groups.

Vandebosch and Van Cleemput (2008) point out that the imbalance of power may lead to cyberbullying. In our real life, the imbalance of physical strength or age may be the cause of traditional bullying. However, it converts into media expertise in the virtual world. Arguably, the power imbalance may occur when a group of people start bullying a person or group of people who newly enter a chatroom, or perhaps make suggestive comments about the group or person on the social site. Besides, the imbalance of power may be likened to media knowledge (Smith et al., 2008) and a ‘power of technology’ (Dooley et al., 2009) to ‘media expertise’ due to the ‘anonymity’ involved in sending unwanted messages in the form of videos and pictures or abusive phone calls (Vandebosch amp; Van Cleemput, 2008). This is something related to the anonymous character of cyberbullying.

What’s more, studies about social factors couldn’t be neglected, either. The moral degeneration greatly influences the value among modern people. Those violent games, porn videos or something like these have lured them to become one of those uncivilized people. Besides, the network media don’t perform their duty to delete unhealthy content owing to the commercial interests. All of these lead to the bad atmosphere in the virtual world, make modern people do some immoral behaviors such as cyberbullying (Tian et al., 2012).

2.4 Harm of Cyberbullying

For those cyberbullying victims, they would suffer from some mental and physical issues. Most of the victims of cyberbullying would show higher levels of loneliness, anxiety, and depression, and lower levels of self-esteem to other people (Kowalski et al., 2012; Selkie et al., 2015). For those young people, they involved in the cyberbullying may show a higher level of suicide than those uninvolved people (Hinduja amp; Patchin, 2010).

Moreover, compared to those youth who haven’t suffered from cyberbullying, the victims may more easily encounter the decrements in their academic performance or experience a higher number of physical health symptoms such as headache, stomachache and trouble sleeping (Kowalski amp; Limber, 2013). Similar to victims, perpetrators would also experience a higher level of loneliness, depression, and anxiety, along with lower self-esteem (Kowalski et al., 2014; Selkie et al., 2015). Nei et al. (2011) also mentioned that cyberbullying may convert into the bullying in our real life. With the escalation of the issue, people get more and more irrational. If without addressing the emotion in a right way, some perpetrators will convert cyberbullying into the real one in order to meet their psychological demand. In extreme circumstances, perpetrators may form opposing forces, and then trigger mass bullying incidents.

2.5 Countermeasures for Cyberbullying

For those college students, most of them may think that they are mature enough and wouldn’t want to tell their parents or teachers about being cyberbullied (Glasner, 2010; Kraft amp; Wang, 2010). As a result, this may lead the increasing number of cyberbullying incidents among college students. Kraft and Wang (2010) suggested if there is a central email account those college students would be more likely to report cyberbullying to college officials. There are also some reports suggesting that those educators should be trained so that they could give enough support for victims (Zalaquett amp; Chatter, 2014).

Washington (2014) suggested that for those instructors, they should take an active role to supervise online interactions so that cyberbullying could be prevented in the beginning. Doane et al. (2014) considered that if students gain the initiative in the incidents of cyberbullying, people will sympathize the victims, which will in turn lead to the decrease of cyberbullying.

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