Social media “talk” & gender violence: discourses of gender violence on facebook by audiences of e-tv’s scandal

Abstract : Violence against women is common, serious, and takes many forms. These forms include physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. These forms also have profound implications for every aspect of women’s lives. This study is about what we can learn from studying how society talks, on social media, about battered women. This phenomenon is described as “social media talk”. The study sought to establish the evolution of social discourse in the age of digital networks by examining the phenomenon of social media talk in relation to regimes of representation of gender violence. Data was collected from Facebook threads relating to six purposively sampled episodes of a local soap opera, Scandal, which depict different forms of intimate partner violence perpetrated against the character of Gloria, by her second husband, Obakeng. Soap opera is the “hook”, the trigger, to the social media talk. Methodologically, the study utilised an emerging online research method, netnography, that enabled the researcher to immerse on the social media platform to gain a deeper insight into the social media chat. The study is grounded in a feminist theoretical framework that places women at the centre. What does “social media talk” reveal in terms of participants’ awareness of intimate partner violence? The thesis turned on this central research question. Crucially, the study demonstrates that talk, discourse and conversation are moving more and more onto social media platforms, and hence social justice activism – if it is to remain relevant – will have to follow the conversation. It foregrounds how we can, as it were, follow the conversation, and what we can learn from such following of the conversation. At the same time, it sheds light on the possibilities and limits of, on the one hand, social media talk and, on the other hand, representation of gender violence. The study thus represents a new paradigm of attending to social discourse. The study also found that soap opera audiences on social media talk in a diversity of ways that may or may not conform to Facebook’s terms of service and to the needs of soap opera marketing teams. At the same time, the social media talk demonstrated differences in expressive styles as well as differing perspectives and differences of opinion. The platform could be used to express tame or dissenting views. The main finding suggests that we need to pause and engage in a deeper conversation and reflection about the quality and direction of the conversation on social media. The impressive conclusions about social media talk stood in stark contrast to the realities of gender violence on the ground.D.Litt. et Phil. (Communication Studies