Justification of Cyber-Harassment Among Turkish Youths

Violence and media are important issues in media theories and research. In the research conducted with the participation of 400 university students, the effects of the concepts of digital media literacy, cyber violence and emotional deafness (alexithymia) on the perception of individuals as justification violence are discussed as factors that cause individuals to perceive violence as legitimate through communication tools. It was determined that variables of being cyberbullying victim, being a cyberbully, digital media literacy and alexithymia (emotional deafness) were explanatory effects on the justification of cyber violence. It has come to the point that the use of digital media literacy and conscious internet using are important in order to prevent justification of cyber harassment.

Seda Gökçe Turan is Assistant Professor at Bahçeşehir University, Turkey and visiting scholar at Bournemouth University, UK. Her areas of interest include digital violence, justification of cyber-harassment, deepfake technology and digital citizenship for children and youths.