Discourse by readers of digital media about police violence against women: another form of virtual violence?

Abstract

This work analyzes the discourse of Chilean readers, in two websites: The Clinc and La Tercera. This work is focused in the cases of police violence: María Paz Cajas, an actress who was beaten by a police in a protest, suffering an abortion; and Lorenza Cayuhan, a Mapuche woman, who was forced to give birth engrafted and surrounded by policemen. In the case of Cajas, only 39.8% of the readers rejected the violence and, in the case of Cayuhan, only 43.75%. The approach to the digital media readers' discourse reveals a lack of empathy towards the victims and towards the physical and psychological damage they suffered, generating a virtual stoning. They are considered guilty of provoking violence. This is how 'machismo' and hate speech are transferred to the Internet, in the context of the Network Society.