Migrantes y refugiados en Twitter en España: estudio de la presencia de odio y del sentimiento a partir de un análisis automatizado

Andrés Barradas Gurruchaga; David Blanco-Herrero; Carlos Arcila-Calderón; Patricia Sánchez-Holgado

doi:10.31921/doxacom.n38a1734

Authors

Andrés Barradas Gurruchaga Tecnológico de Monterrey, México https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9020-6659
David Blanco-Herrero University of Salamanca, Spain https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7414-2998
Carlos Arcila-Calderón University of Salamanca, Spain https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2636-2849
Patricia Sánchez-Holgado University of Salamanca, Spain https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6253-7087

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31921/doxacom.n38a1734

Keywords:

Immigration, racism and xenophobia, hate speech, social networks, sentiment analysis, Twitter

Abstract

Hate speech directed towards migrants and refugees poses one of the greatest challenges in communication on social networks. By means of an automated analysis of 124,337 messages about migration collected on Twitter in Spain between 2015 and 2020, the presence of hate and the underlying sentiment in the discourse are analysed, as is their development and the possible differences between Spanish regions. It has been observed that, although greater attention was paid to migration in 2015 and 2016, the core years of the Mediterranean refugee crisis, the greatest volume of hate was detected in 2019 and 2020, following the rise of Vox and its anti-immigration rhetoric. In general, the sentiment in these messages was negative, although the difference is slight between those expressing hate and those which do not. Finally, differences have been observed between Spanish regions, with Asturias having the greatest presence of hate and Cantabria showing the most negative sentiment; such differences, however, are not great and no clear patterns have been detected to explain them.

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Author Biographies

Andrés Barradas Gurruchaga, Tecnológico de Monterrey, México

PhD in Communication from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Full-time Professor at the Tecnológico de Monterrey (Mexico). He has conducted research into areas of audio-visual communication and the creative industries, contributing to scientific papers and books. Both scriptwriter and director of short films shown at film festivals such as Cannes. He has addressed audiences in Latin America, the US and Spain. A member of the Mexican Association of Communication Researchers and of the Spanish Association of Communication Research. He spent a sabbatical research period at the Universidad de Salamanca, Spain. He has been the Director of the degree in Communication and Digital Media, Regional Director of the Department of Creative Industries, Research Professor, and Post-graduate Professor of the Master’s in Finance at the EGADE Business School.
David Blanco-Herrero, University of Salamanca, Spain

Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam. He has a PhD from the Universidad de Salamanca, a Master’s in Audio-visual Communication (Universidad de Salamanca), and degrees in Journalism (Universidad a Distancia de Madrid) and Business Administration (Universidad de León). He is a member of the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR) and his main lines of research are in journalistic ethics, disinformation and hate speech. He is an editor of the Electronic Yearbook on Studies in Social Communication “Disertaciones”. He has also worked as a journalist and collaborated with radio and digital media, particularly on international affairs and audio-visual culture.
Carlos Arcila-Calderón, University of Salamanca, Spain

Full Professor in the Department of Sociology and Communication of the Universidad de Salamanca (Spain). Member of the Audio-visual Content Observatory (OCA) and Professor of the Doctorate in Training in the Knowledge Society. Editor of the Electronic Yearbook on Studies in Social Communication “Disertaciones”. He has a European Doctorate in “Communication, Social Change and Development” from the Complutense University of Madrid. Master’s in Data Science and a Master’s in Journalism, both from the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC).
Patricia Sánchez-Holgado, University of Salamanca, Spain

Researcher at the Universidad de Salamanca and member of the Audio-visual Content Observatory. Graduate in Advertising and Public Relations (Complutense University of Madrid). She is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Languages and Education in Nebrija University in Madrid and in the Faculty of Communication at the Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca. An expert on Big Data (Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca) with a Master's degree in Science, Technology and Innovation Studies (Universidad de Oviedo).

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