Anonymity, Cyber Bullying & Its Effects on K-Pop

Anonymity, Cyber Bullying & its Effects on K-Pop Idols

Alyees Qureshi

Department of Communications, University of North Florida

Mmc 4420: Mass Communications Research

Dr. Siho Nam

April 29, 2020 2

I. Introduction:

The rise of anonymous accounts on social media sites has led to a culture of bashing and targeting of high profile individual K-Pop idols, leading to cases of depression and suicides. This online culture has been left to run amuk and the statements made by these anonymous accounts have gone without any real consequences actions from authorities. That is why I am proposing a study that aims to look into how preventative legal measures in South Korea have stopped the creation of anonymous accounts and how it affects the outlook of those targeted stars' quality of life. Altogether, I will be testing the data from my previous studies and build upon them to justify this new research proposal and hope to justify the banning of anonymity on social media platforms to make social media platforms a more positive environment for K-Pop idols and celebrities alike.

II. Literature Review:

Essentially, cyberbullying is the use of electronic communication to harass or threaten a person. In this digital era, cyberbullying has become a very prominent form of bullying as children gain more access to digital media. Additionally, there are many expectations that social media places upon people and it is easy to become influenced by it. Across many articles, cyberbullying is not exactly defined as the concept is assumed to be understood without definition. However, some sources do elaborate on the concept of cyberbullying. For example, one source suggests that “celebrities regularly become the subject of mean comments online” and that this phenomenon is referred to as celebrity bashing. Celebrity bashing is usually made up of degrading comments on the celebrity’s work, appearance, or private life. Most celebrity 3 bashing is instigated by journalists or their audiences on public platforms. This source states that

“cyberbullying, online defamation, name calling, and abuse from predators and trolling mobs discourage speech and deter participation in public arenas.” (Ouvrein et al, 2018, p. 2).

There has not been much research into the issue of how allowing anonymous accounts, that cannot be traced back to a person, has led to a culture of cyberbullying online, specifically against K-Pop stars that are the most vulnerable when it comes to mental health due to their tireless schedules, undereating, and expectations those anonymous accounts and the general public have for them. However, my previous qualitative study led me to the conclusion that anonymity does lead to a higher rate of negative remarks being made against K-Pop stars.

Another study published by the National Institute of Health states, “Cyberbullying is public, pervasive and provides anonymity not observed with traditional bullying. Studies are increasingly showing the negative effects of cyberbullying on both the bully and the victim.

While it is possible to be charged with some aspects of cyberbullying under the Criminal Code of

Canada, the Code has not yet been modernized to reflect the information technology era.” (Peebles, 2014) This study lays the foundation to define cyberbullying as harmful for both victims and the bully, and mentions how the law has not kept up with the ways bullying is conducted online. That is why an integral part of my research proposal is going to study how new laws in South Korea are dealing with this new-age phenomena of bullying.

Another study by Michael Adorjan and Rosemary Ricciardelli elaborate upon one recent systematic review which evaluates randomized control trials assessing school responses to cyberbullying. This assessment found that most studies did not indicate any positive effects of cyberbullying control in the long term (Adorjan, Ricciardelli, 2019). However, the assessment 4 did find that a ‘whole school’ approach was more effective in reducing bullying behaviors because it involved the entire school community in the process of exacerbating issues of cyber- risk among students. Although most studies that analyze the whole school approach indicate mixed results, it is generally a more optimal direction for schools to proceed with when enforcing safety against cyber-risk. This study suggests public order and rule implementation runs a better chance at curbing incidences for bullying and gives me more confidence that suggesting more legal ramifications for offenders of cyberbullying will help curb the behavior online.

A study was conducted by Petra Gradinger, Strohmeier Dagmar, and Christiane Spiel, to improve the conceptual understanding of cyberbullying. This study was conducted by empirically comparing the number of identified cyberbullies based on two measurement methods of global versus specific items, and two cut off scores. The experiment examined 1150 students aged 10 to 15 years via self assessments, the majority of which were male students. The experiment found that only 18 as frequent cyberbullies using the global item and 73 students were identified as occasional cyberbullies and. In contrast however, 87 as frequent cyberbullies using the specific items assessment and 186 students were identified as occasional cyberbullies

(Gradinger et al., 2010, pg. 3). This study helps us understand the prevalence of cyberbullies and how far reaching the population is, that even children the age of 10 are considered cybebullies.

III. Summary of Pilot Studies

During my pilot research, I conducted two separate studies to assess both my quantitative and qualitative analysis findings. Below is a summary of each studies finding: 5

Quantitative: I conducted a survey online with 40 respondents, asking ten questions relating to social media usage and personal occurrences of cyberbullying. I found that the majority of my respondents used social media for more than 2 hours, and we know that more time spent online will increase the likelihood of encountering instances of cyber-bullying or the chance of being cyberbullied yourself. This is confirmed when the question of, “How often do you experience cyberbullying or any type of online harassment?” was answered, with close to

80% of respondents responding very often, with another 13% answering somewhat often. My respondents also reply defensively when cyberbullied themselves when asked, “How would you respond to a negative comment on your post?”, with 41% answering they would delete the comment, 15% blocking the commentator and another 15% responding to the negative comment.

My quantitative study concludes by finding that most of my respondents use social media for 2+ hours a day, experience cyberbullying regularly online and also respond to personal instances of cyberbullying in some manner.

Qualitative: I conducted a research study on Twitter with three people who use the platform with anonymous accounts and cyberbully K-Pop artists regularly. I asked five questions relating to their anonymity, recent deaths of K-Pop stars and how it affects their current behavior, how they benefit from cyberbullying online. I found that these respondents were all using anonymous accounts to conceal their identity so nothing they say can be traced back to them, giving them the freedom to say anything. When asked how the suicides of Sulli and Goo Hara, two prominent K-Pop stars who cited cyberbullying as a cause for their depression and struggles before their deaths, have made them self-aware of the power of cyberbullying and if that has made them cut back on cyberbullying, they all responded no- they stopped for a short while but 6 as the memory of their deaths faded, they resumed their normal activities of cyberbullying K-Pop idols online. They responded emotionally when asked how they would feel if they were the ones being cyberbullied instead, and they all agreed they would not want to be the subject of that hate.

There are some discrepancies found when comparing the qualitative and quantitative studies. I regret that I did not ask in the quantitative survey if the respondents have secondary anonymous accounts or primary anonymous accounts to browse social media, so I can have a statistic of that number. In my proposed research, I will ask this question and add on more questions to assess how those specific anonymous users use the platform and how they would be swayed not to cyberbully online if legal action would be taken against them.

IV. Research Design and Methods

In this proposed research proposal, I want to answer and study the following: 1. How anonymous accounts online will behave when legal action is threatened against them for their instances of cyberbullying 2. How K-Pop stars feel when they are protected from malicious attacks and instances of cyberbullying online 3. How South Korea’s practice of implementing a identity verifier, connecting your social media accounts to your federal ID, makes people cyberbully less

My proposed quantitative research method for this is to ask a series of 10-15 questions using surveymonkey to assess how people feel about anonymity online, what methods they believe will stop instances of cyberbullying, if they believe the law is doing enough to keep up with the cyberbullying phenomena of celebrities etc… My proposed qualitative research method will be to create an interview guide geared for a mix of K-Pop stars and anonymous account users with questions that will dive deeper into the framework that needs to be created to prevent cyberbullying from occurring and harming anymore lives. 7

The sequence of my research method will follow the Sequential Explanatory way. I want to first assess the results of my quantitative study before creating my qualitative study. This allows me to fine tune my interview guide and get deeper answers into the results and finding of my quantitative study. The disadvantage to this method is that I can only operate my qualitative study within the framework of my quantitative analysis, so it will be very specific.

The population that will be studied in this mixed research proposal will be anonymous social media users on Twitter, and they will be selected via searching in the replies of prominent

K-Pop celebrities tweets. My goal is to find users that cyberbully these artists. I will aim to find

40 individual anonymous account users for the qualitative study. For my qualitative study, I will connect with a journalist friend that has access to some K-Pop idols and ask if I can interview them for this paper. I will interview Hyoyeon and Tiffany of Girls’ Generation, soloist Chungha and BoA and Sunmi. I will also interview 5 anonymous accounts. The interview guide will be separate for both the artists and anonymous account users.

The procedures for this study will be simple and straightforward. I will first complete my quantitative study, analyze the data, and then create a qualitative research study based on those findings and then conduct the last part of my method. I will then synthesize the information, viewing the information independently of one another to assess any trends in the data, and together, to see if there is any overlap or more to be said about a specific question and answer prompt. The time frame for data collection will be 1-2 months, and this is allotted to allow the busy K-Pop stars to find time in their schedule to be able to receive my interview guide and send it back so that I can group their results with the rest of my findings. 8

The key study variables in this study will be the relationship between how certain levels of legal action can affect the activity of anonymous twitter users. Legal action can be defined as imprisonment, a fine, legal warning by the state to these anonymous users for their offense. For each level of legal action, I will assess how respondents react when that threat of level action is levied against their behavior and how likely they will be to stop cyberbullying given the consequences. The variable of legal action can only be measured in response to how the respondents react, since these laws are not in place to combat cyberbullying, at least not yet.

I will conduct my quantitative study on surveymonkey with questions related to the population's age, income level, education history, their cyber bullying targets online, and what course of action they believe will end their cyberbullying tendencies online. For my qualitative study geared towards the K-Pop stars they will answer the following:

1. 1How do you feel about anonymous accounts and the freedom they have to say whatever

they want to you?

2. Do you believe the government should get involved to discipline cyberbullies?

3. How severe of a punishment do you think is fit for cyberbullies that threaten physical or

mental harm?

4. As a K-Pop star, describe how in South Korea the cyberbullying culture is changing

given the new rules about disabling comments on popular sites such as Naver and having

everyone verify their identity online?

5. Do you see this problem ever coming to a full end, why or why not?

For my anonymous respondents, they will be asked these same questions but varied:

1. How do you feel about K-Pop stars and the treatment they get online? 9

2. Do you believe the government should get involved to discipline cyberbullies?

3. How severe of a punishment do you think is fit for cyberbullies like you that threaten

physical or mental harm?

4. How do you feel about the government asking you to verify your identity and details for

your social media accounts online? Do you think you will be less of a cyberbully then?

5. Do you see this problem ever coming to a full end, why or why not?

V. Data Analysis:

The data will be stored primarily on Microsoft Excel and Word. I will export the survey monkey results and create tables, pivot tables and charts within Excel. I will use words to track my respondents' answers to the qualitative questions. My primary data analysis method will be statistical, as I want to understand the mean, average and deviation in my respondents answers when asked certain questions. I will use text analysis to compare both my qualitative and quantitative studies and assess any larger patterns and overlap between the two.

Appendix:

1. Peebles, E. (2014, December). Cyberbullying: Hiding behind the screen. https:// www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4276384/

2. Ouvrein, G., Pabian, S., Machimbarrena, J. M., De Backer, C. J. S., & Vandebosch, H. (2018). Online Celebrity Bashing: Wrecking Ball or Good for You? Adolescent Girls’ Attitudes Toward the Media and Public Bashing of Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez. Communication Research Reports, 35(3), 261–271. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/08824096.2018.1467833

3. Adorjan, M., & Ricciardelli, R. (2019). Student perspectives towards school responses to cyber-risk and safety: the presumption of the prudent digital citizen. Learning, Media & Technology, 44(4), 430–442. https://doi-org.dax.lib.unf.edu/ 10.1080/17439884.2019.1583671

4. Gradinger, P., Strohmeier, D., & Spiel, C. (2010). Definition and Measurement of Cyberbullying. Cyberpsychology, 4(2), 1–13. 5. Jordan, T. (2019). Does online anonymity undermine the sense of personal responsibility? Media, Culture & Society, 41(4), 572–577. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443719842073