Exploring attitudes in online discussions on facebook about the grays incident essex lorry deaths

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF LINGUISTICS & CULTURES OF ENGLISH-SPEAKING COUNTRIES/ FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION NGUYỄN NGỌC HỒNG MINH GRADUATION PAPER Exploring attitudes in online discussions on Facebook about the Grays incident (Essex lorry deaths) SUBMITTED IN FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS (ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION) Supervisor: HOÀNG THỊ HẠNH, Ph.D Ha Noi, May / 2020 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA NGƠN NGỮ VÀ VĂN HĨA CÁC NƯỚC NÓI TIẾNG ANH/ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH NGUYỄN NGỌC HỒNG MINH KHĨA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP Tìm hiểu thái độ người dùng thảo luận phổ biến Facebook kiện 39 người chết Essex Giáo viên hướng dẫn: HOÀNG THỊ HẠNH (T.S.) Hà Nội, tháng Năm / 2020 Signature of Approval from Supervisor: ACCEPTANCE PAGE I hereby state that I: Nguyễn Ngọc Hồng Minh, class QH2016.F1.E2.CLC, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (English Language Teacher Education) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper Nguyễn Ngọc Hồng Minh May 11th, 2020 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Hoàng Thị Hạnh from the Faculty of Linguistics and Cultures of Englishspeaking Countries Had it not been for her professional guidance, invaluable advice, tolerance, and encouragement, this graduation thesis would not have come to fruition It was all thanks to her insights and feedback that prevented this study from arriving at an impasse Next, I wish to extend my thanks towards my friends and immediate family for always being technically and emotionally supportive regardless of circumstance Their sentiments definitely were of great necessity when dealing with temper issues from the process of conducting this study Last but not least, I sincerely appreciate the mutual assistance and companionship of Nguyễn Diệu Thúy from the Faculty of English Language Teacher and Education Although operating in different faculties and working on disparate themes, we constantly exchanged ideas and theories to help each other better our writings i ABSTRACT As social media plays a progressively important role in our everyday life, it becomes a platform to connect people and ideas, and to express thoughts and behaviors with minimal geographical and political barriers Amongst popular topics for discussion, the Essex lorry deaths in late 2019 received much attention from the Vietnamese Facebook community as it is one of the most outrageous human smuggling crimes Vietnam has witnessed up to current times The public responses to the tragedy vary from sympathetic condolences to more aggressive derogation of the 39 deceased undocumented immigrants While the research body on social network users’ responses to misfortunate events is by no means limited, very few studies were dedicated to human smuggling cases’ reactions This study, therefore, explores a number of social network influencers’ comment threads regarding the incident to discover common attitudes of Facebook users on the victims’ tragedy Findings reveal three major attitudes, namely victim blaming, victim support, and arguments about the government’s responsibility While supportive behaviors reign over the other two in sheer quantity with 62.98 percent, which could indicate the public’s comprehensive empathetic attitude towards the deceased, adverse reactions (i.e., derogative comments ridiculing the deceased and their decision) nonetheless deserve careful inspection due to their severity and influence over people ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACCEPTANCE PAGE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i ABSTRACT ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES v CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the study 1.2 Statement of the research problem and question 1.3 Scope of the study 1.4 Significance of the study 1.5 Organization CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Background information 2.1.1 The Grays incident (Essex lorry deaths) 2.1.2 Facebook’s influence in Vietnam 2.2 Key concept - Victim blaming 12 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Data collection 12 3.2 Data analysis 14 CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 17 4.1 General findings 17 4.2 Findings and discussion 19 4.2.1 Victim blaming 20 4.2.1.1 Disregard of individual’s circumstance and Baseless assumptions 20 4.2.1.2 Othering (labelling, sarcasm, memes, and vulgarity) 23 4.2.2 Victim support 25 4.2.2.1 Condolences for the victims 26 4.2.2.2 Explanation and/or speculation of the victims’ circumstance 27 4.2.2.3 Spreading knowledge of the event to friends and/or relatives 28 4.2.3 Arguments about the government’s responsibility 29 CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION 33 5.1 Discussion and implications 33 5.2 Limitations and suggestions for future research 36 REFERENCES 38 APPENDICES 47 iii Post 01 47 Post 02 50 Post 03 51 Post 04 52 iv LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table Qualitative content analysis of Facebook discourses about the Essex lorry deaths incident (p 17) Theme Sub-theme/content Victim blaming Disregard of circumstance individual’s and Baseless assumptions Othering (labelling, sarcasm, memes, and vulgarity) Victim support Condolences for the victims Explanation and/or speculation of the victims’ circumstance Spreading knowledge of the event to friends and/or relatives Arguments about the government’s Condemning the government for responsibility their weaknesses against Defending policies v the government’s Attitudes in popular Facebook online discussions 14.98% Victim blaming 22.04% Victim support Arguments about the government’s responsibility 62.98% Figure Showcasing different attitudes in popular Facebook discussions about the Essex lorry deaths incident (p 18) vi BBC News (2019, November 2) Essex lorry deaths: Vietnam condemns 'human smuggling' BBC Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-50273470 BBC News (2019, November 21) Essex lorry deaths: Money raised for Vietnamese victims' families BBC Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-50501532 BBC News (2019, November 8) Essex lorry deaths: Police name 39 Vietnamese victims BBC Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/ukengland-essex-50350481 Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime (2018) Victim blaming Retrieved from https://crcvc.ca/docs/victim_blaming.pdf Dalbert, C (2001) The justice motive as a personal resource: Dealing with challenges and critical life events Critical issues in social justice Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232502179_The_justice_motive_as_a_ personal_resource_Dealing_with_challenges_and_critical_life_events_Critical_is sues_in_social_justice Dang, H G (2017) Thiện, ác smartphone Hà Nội: Nhà Xuất Bản Hội Nhà Văn Fetchenhauer, D., Jacobs, G., & Belschak, F (2005) Belief in a just world, causal attributions, and adjustment to sexual violence Social Justice Research, 18(1), 25-42 Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/226131722_Belief_in_a_Just_World_C ausal_Attributions_and_Adjustment_to_Sexual_Violence Freberg, K., Graham, K., McGaughey, K., & Freberg, L A (2011) Who are the social media influencers? 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CONCLUSION 5.1 Discussion and implications The present study sought to discover Vietnamese Facebook users’ attitudes regarding the Essex lorry deaths incident within popular online discussions Findings... said beliefs in online discussions about undocumented immigration in general, and about the Essex lorry deaths incident in particular, in Vietnamese social network context, of which the number... of the Essex lorry deaths incident, people started wondering the reasons for the victims’ decision Amongst popular discussions on Facebook, there seems to be a vast array of attitudes implied in