Building the fanbullying concept: Critical review of social media harassment

Abstract

The participatory culture in the online environment has expanded citizenship opportunities for learning and empowerment. In this context, new social media are available for the rupture of traditional relations, where digital interaction protocols are established, as well as overflows of preestablished ethical codes. The purpose of this study is to investigate the construction of the concept of fanbullying as the pernicious relationship between fans and actors through social media. To this end, we developed a literature review, broadening the spectrum of citizen excesses in the digital age through bullying, cyber-bullying and hate speech, and an analysis of media cases from the series 13 Reasons Why, Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead. The results discover the disproportionate use of these platforms by the fan community, where actors are exposed as public figures to constant mockery, humiliation and threats. Therefore, beyond the adjacent personal relationships and the purely school environment, we conclude that in digital environments new practices of fanbullying are being developed where the boundaries between reality and fiction are blurring, resulting in the need for an educational-juridical intervention..