Computational Study on Organised Cyberbullying in Online Communities
Lead Research Organisation:
Brunel University London
Department Name: Brunel Business School
Abstract
The major tasks of the proposed collaboration program include: 1) the scoping study of process analytics of organised cyberbullying behaviours in OCs; 2) training ESRs; and 3) organizing knowledge exchange events.
Scoping Study. The task aims at conducting scoping study for applying computational process analytics for developing process view of cyberbullying behaviours in online communities. An online community archive data from a Korean celebrity online community, which the collaboration team owns, will be used for the study. The deliverable of this task is D1, a grant proposal entitled "A Study on Organised Cyberbullying in Online Communities" and to be delivered in month 18. There are 5 main sub-tasks (STs) to deliver a grant proposal. ST 1 conducts a systematic literature review on cyberbullying in Internet. The scientific databases in Information Systems, Organisational Behaviour, Computer Science, Psychology, and Healthcare Management will be searched to identify related studies. The outcome is the related studies and the confirmation of the scientific novelty of the proposed research. ST 2 is to design the framework to address three research questions based on critical realism. A computational social science framework based on critical realism will be used as the basic framework. In the framework, a text mining tool will be integrated to identify articles with regards to organised cyberbullying. The selected articles will be further analysed for coding involved actors, their positions, and their networks. A sequence analytics tool like TraMiner (http://traminer.unige.ch/) will be used for identifying patterns of interactions among community members. The framework is expected to provide static (network model) and dynamic (evolution of patterns) view of organised cyberbullying behaviours. In ST 3, the framework will be applied to the OC archive data to evaluate the usability of the framework. Also, the team will develop guidelines to develop process theories based on the computational analysis results using the framework. ST 4 will analyse scientific and practical impact of the proposed framework. Target industry and stakeholders who will be beneficiary of the framework will be identified and the scenarios of the use of framework to generate values for them will be developed. Finally, ST 5 will summarise the findings of each STs as a grant proposal for the larger scale study to generalise the usability of the framework in different OCs.
Training of ESRs. This task consists of activities to train ESRs including the assessment of the training needs of individual ESR, designing training sessions, delivery of training contents, and establishing feedback loops to ensure the training needs are met at the end of the course. The training sessions will be delivered through online and on-site events. On-site training sessions will be delivered at four workshops organized at UBRUN (month 4, 12) and YSU (month 8, 16).
Knowledge Exchange Seminars. This task includes activities to organise monthly online seminars between UBRU and YSU teams. UBRUN and YSU staff members will present their research outcomes in relation with Scoping Study. Also, external experts working on the cyberbullying in OCs as well as methods applied in the study will be invited for integrating their knowledge into the scoping study outcomes.
Scoping Study. The task aims at conducting scoping study for applying computational process analytics for developing process view of cyberbullying behaviours in online communities. An online community archive data from a Korean celebrity online community, which the collaboration team owns, will be used for the study. The deliverable of this task is D1, a grant proposal entitled "A Study on Organised Cyberbullying in Online Communities" and to be delivered in month 18. There are 5 main sub-tasks (STs) to deliver a grant proposal. ST 1 conducts a systematic literature review on cyberbullying in Internet. The scientific databases in Information Systems, Organisational Behaviour, Computer Science, Psychology, and Healthcare Management will be searched to identify related studies. The outcome is the related studies and the confirmation of the scientific novelty of the proposed research. ST 2 is to design the framework to address three research questions based on critical realism. A computational social science framework based on critical realism will be used as the basic framework. In the framework, a text mining tool will be integrated to identify articles with regards to organised cyberbullying. The selected articles will be further analysed for coding involved actors, their positions, and their networks. A sequence analytics tool like TraMiner (http://traminer.unige.ch/) will be used for identifying patterns of interactions among community members. The framework is expected to provide static (network model) and dynamic (evolution of patterns) view of organised cyberbullying behaviours. In ST 3, the framework will be applied to the OC archive data to evaluate the usability of the framework. Also, the team will develop guidelines to develop process theories based on the computational analysis results using the framework. ST 4 will analyse scientific and practical impact of the proposed framework. Target industry and stakeholders who will be beneficiary of the framework will be identified and the scenarios of the use of framework to generate values for them will be developed. Finally, ST 5 will summarise the findings of each STs as a grant proposal for the larger scale study to generalise the usability of the framework in different OCs.
Training of ESRs. This task consists of activities to train ESRs including the assessment of the training needs of individual ESR, designing training sessions, delivery of training contents, and establishing feedback loops to ensure the training needs are met at the end of the course. The training sessions will be delivered through online and on-site events. On-site training sessions will be delivered at four workshops organized at UBRUN (month 4, 12) and YSU (month 8, 16).
Knowledge Exchange Seminars. This task includes activities to organise monthly online seminars between UBRU and YSU teams. UBRUN and YSU staff members will present their research outcomes in relation with Scoping Study. Also, external experts working on the cyberbullying in OCs as well as methods applied in the study will be invited for integrating their knowledge into the scoping study outcomes.
Publications
| Description | The collaboration aimed at developing a joint large grant proposal with regards to cyberbullying in online communities, train early-stage researchers, and exchange knowledge on research methodology and cyberbullying among team members. The first goal was achieved as the joint grant proposal developed by Brunel University London and Yonsei University through the collaboration was funded by Korean government. The new project started in June 2023 and lasts until May 2026 to investigate the detection of cyberbullying cases; to measure economic and societal impacts of cyberbullying; and to understand the role of group norm in mitigating cyberbullying in online communities. The collaboration also organised four on-site workshops for the exchange of knowledge of team members at Seoul and London. Total 25 presentations were made by the team members and invited speakers on computational research methods and findings from the scoping study. Apart from on-site workshops, the team organised 8 online seminars to train PhD and MSc students on qualitative, quantitative, and computational research methods. |
| Exploitation Route | The grant proposal which is one of the outcomes of the collaboration is already being implemented through the funding by Korea National Research Foundation. Brunel University London team also developed another grant proposal in collaboration with Universiti of Malaya (UM) and submitted to British Council in March 2024. The proposal aims at establishing a cyberbullying research hub at UM and coordinate cyberbullying research through engaging with academics, industrial stakeholders and policy makers in Malaysia. The outcomes from this collaboration can be used by digital platform managers who are pressed to provide safety mechanism to protect children and adult users from cyberbullying. Also, policy makers are expected to keep eye on the outcomes of the project to develop legal framework to protect Internet users from cyberbullying. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Education Government Democracy and Justice |
| Description | The outcomes of the collaboration draw attention from NGOs and government organisations. Anti-Bullying Alliance (https://anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk) is a coalition of organisations that are interested in mitigating cyberbullying in the UK. It has more than 200 members and provides parents and teachers with trainings and educational materials to deal with cyberbullying. The project team engaged with them for the possibiliy of using the outcomes of the project for training materials for their members. CyberSecurity Malaysia (CSM) is an NGO established by the ministry of science, technology and innovation (MOSTI) in Malaysia. It provides all Internet users in Malaysia with educational, promotional, and remedial assistance. Specific services they provide include cyber emergency response (Cyber999), digital forensics, security assurance, security management & best practices, training & outreach, technical coordination centre, and strategic policy research. Cyberbullying related incidents are reported to Cyber999. They joined in the post grant proposal which was submitted to British Council as an associated partner. The contacts made CyberSecurity Malaysia aware of the importance of group norm and dynamics in mitigating cyberbullying incidents in digital platforms. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2024 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Education,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Impact Types | Societal Policy & public services |
| Description | Socioeconomic Impact and Prevention Strategy of Cyberbullying: Identification of Mechanism and Development of Prediction Model |
| Amount | ₩300,000,000 (KRW) |
| Organisation | National Research Foundation of Korea |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | Korea, Republic of |
| Start | 05/2023 |
| End | 02/2026 |
| Description | Joint seminar series on Bright Internet |
| Organisation | Yonsei University |
| Country | Korea, Republic of |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Brunel University London and Yonsei University created a new joint seminar series on Bright Internet in which researchers from both Universities present their studies on societal issues with regards to the use of Internet including cyberbullying. The joint seminar series are hosted by each University in turn. Our team contributed to the logistics of the seminars at Brunel including call for papers to select papers to be presented at the seminars. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Yonsei University team involved 5 staff members in organising the joint seminar series and hosted two seminars at their University. The members of Barun (meaning "righteous") Information and Communication Technology Research Centre that aims to cultivate righteous social values related to ICT and provide stakeholders with policy guidelines for safe and sustainable use of ICT contributed to the seminar series in presenting their studies and logistics of the seminar series at Yonsei University. |
| Impact | The collaboration resulted in following outcomes. . A technical paper that reviews studies on cyberbullying . A joint research grant proposal |
| Start Year | 2022 |