Abstract

The recognition of some overlap between face to face harassment (bullying) and via digital harassment (cyberbullying) could indicate that variables of social cognition, whose influence has been identified in bullying, also are present in cyberbullying. The aim of this research was to determine the social adjustment of roles involved in cyberbullying and to analyze the differences in the perception of social competence, social goals and peer support, between victims, aggressors and bully-victims of cyberbullying. A number of 505 teenagers (47.3% girls) between 12 and 16 years old (M=13.95, SD=1.42) participated in the study. Validated instruments for Spanish teenagers were used and psychometric properties for the adaptation of the scale of social competence were analyzed. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis showed optimal scores of reliability and validity. The cyber-bullying victims showed greater involvement in cyberbullying. Comparisons between roles with nonparametric tests showed that cyberbullies had the highest levels of peer support and popularity social goals. Cybervictims were highlighted by a high perception of social competence. Cyberbully-victims were described by their high popularity goals and low peer acceptance. These results support the conclusion that the way in which the peer group manages its emotional and social life may be explaining the situation of cyberbullying among teenagers.

Abstract

Mass media have a central role in transmitting culture. In fact, they have become handy relevant tools for learning a foreign language due to their ability to transmit both direct and indirect information. Mass media that broadcast or publish in Spanish have helped to unify the language in a basic neutral Spanish, fostering better reading and writing competences and self-esteem increase among the Hispanic population, at the same time making this population more visible. The main aim of this study is to analyze what motivates North American students to select Spanish as a foreign language. For this purpose, the number and types of mass media published in Spanish in the geographic context of the survey informants have been studied, as well as the use the students make of media. Furthermore, an adaptation of the questionnaire by Ramírez (1992) has been employed to establish the socio-cultural competence of North American students studying at two Spanish universities. The analysis of the survey results reveals that mass media have a high impact on the social motivation to learn Spanish as a foreign language of these students, that is to say, the possibility of working with and assisting the Hispanic population is rated as a main career opportunity. Mass media show the importance that Spanish is acquiring in other formal contexts of American life and constitute a nexus between cultures. They have also conquered students of Spanish as a foreign language as an audience, as they consider media an important source of linguistic and cultural input.

Abstract

This study analyses the role of communication in social activism from models that surpass the mere emotional reaction, prior belief reinforcement or brand identification. This paper tests the hypothesis that a message focused on the cause (and its results) will motivate a previously sensitized audience depending on their interactions with source favorability. The methodology is based on the design of a bifactor experimental action result study 2 (failure versus success) x 2 valences (favorable versus unfavorable source) with the participation of 297 people who are pro-avoidance of evictions. The results allow us to infer that the messages from sources hostile to the cause that report negative results have the potential to emotionally and behaviorally motivate activists to a greater extent than messages with more positive results from favorable sources. The conclusions point to the dialogue between social injustice frames and pro-cause action emotions as a way to increase social mobilization. The theoretical and empirical implications of these findings are discussed in the present-day context of social media prevalence.