Academic CentreThe Level of Verbal Aggressiveness of Latvian Internet News Portal Commentators during the COVID-19 Pandemic (2020–2021)
Anda Rožukalne
The aim of the study was to find out whether the level of verbal aggressiveness of comments of Internet news sites increased during the pandemic. Using the data provided by the unique Internet comments research tool the Internet Aggressiveness Index (IAI) developed by researchers of the Faculty of Communication of Riga Stradins University, the level of verbal aggressiveness in the commentary section of the largest Latvian Internet news media (Delfi.lv, Tvnet.lv, Apollo.lv) was measured. During the study, data from the entire pandemic period were evaluated, as well as in a separate analysis verbal aggression in each of the two periods of emergency (Spring 2020; Winter 2020 and Spring 2021) was carried out. The study found that Internet users commented aggressively on Covid-19 news and other topics, but the overall level of verbal aggression remained unchanged, and similar to the average level recorded by IAI over the past five years. Different data however were obtained on verbal aggression on news portals between the Latvian and Russian commentaries. The verbal aggression of Latvian commentators increased slightly at the end of the second emergency period but decreased in the Russian language commentators. Thus, it can be concluded that the insecurity and the difficulties encountered by Latvian society because of the pandemic have not contributed to a significant increase in verbal aggression in the Internet discussions and to a significant change in the climate of the digital public sphere.