Investigating Cyberbullying in Electronic Communication: A Descriptive Study

Abstract

Cyberbullying is widely used nowadays in electronic communication. It takes different forms, and it is considered a serious problem that faces all communities. Therefore, the current study is an attempt to discover cyberbullying with its types found in one type of electronic communication, “Facebook”. The data are as type of screenshots and collected from an archived formal page on Facebook called “BBC News”. The data of the study encompass (10 comments) samples “screen shots” from different posts on “BBC News”. The analyses reveal  “four” different types of cyberbullying which are employed in the data. The types are flaming, which is a reply directed towards other people’s comments; rumour spreading which is directed towards the posts or the channel; trolling, which is directed towards a specific post or the topic of discussion; and tagging, which occurs by making tags to other people with their usernames. Thus, cyberspace creates new different social environments that allow different online users from all over the world to contribute to electronic communication and cause many forms of cyberbullying.