Bullying in The Age of The Wall: Trump and the digital radicalisation towards Latino students in the US

Abstract

This study seeks to examine the role of social media in the construction and circulation of extremist narratives; in particular, to understand how these narratives encourage harassment against Latino students in the United States of America. Fieldwork will be addressed toward studying posts, comments and news shared on Facebook in both English and Spanish. The narrative method was chosen as the main frame for selecting and analysing data. This methodology affords the option of giving a voice to actors with direct involvement in the events. Hence, this project will focus on analysing a variety of points of view, from democrats to republicans, and from people against and in favour of migration. The results reveal that, in these extremist digital narratives, traditional and new forms of harassment towards minorities converge, and that, to diminish traditional and virtual bullying, innovative and wide-ranging approaches should be implemented.