CYBERBULLYING ON TWITTER EXPERIENCED BY AMERICAN

PUBLIC FIGURES

A Scientific Publication

Submitted as a partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to achieve

Sarjana Sastra Degree in English Literature Department
Faculty of Literature, Culture, and Communication
Universitas Ahmad Dahlan

By
SALMA AZIZAH SHEILANUKDA A.
1600026158

ENGLISH LITERATURE DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LITERATURE, CULTURE, AND COMMUNICATION
UNIVERSITAS AHMAD DAHLAN
2021
 CYBERBULLYING ON TWITTER EXPERIENCED BY AMERICAN
PUBLIC FIGURES
Salma’ Azizah Sheilanukda A.
English Literature
Universitas Ahmad
Dahlan
Yogyakarta
sheilanukda@gmail.com

Dra. Ani Windarti, M.Hum.

English Literature
Universitas Ahmad
Dahlan
Yogyakarta
winnieani25@gmail.com

Citation: Salma’ Azizah Sheilanukda A., Ani Windarti. (2021). Cyber Bullying Among
American Public Figures as Seen on Twitter. Notion: Journal of Linguistics,
Literature and Culture Vol x(x), p. xx. DOI: http://doi.org/xxx

Article Info ABSTRACT

Article History This study explores bullying has been grown into something more dangerous and
Article Received out of control problem over the past years. In recent years bullying itself has been
spreading into internet which called cyber bullying. Since bullying occurs on the
Article Accepted
internet especially on social media, every single person potentially can be the victim of
this action, and no exception for public figures. This study entitled Cyberbullying on
Keywords Twitter Experienced by American Public Figures find out the verbal expression of cyber
Feminism, Female bullying on American public figures Twitter, and also to examine the victim’s reaction
Victims, Horror, towards cyber bullying on their Twitter.
Psycho, Scream, To find out the major objectives in this study, the researcher takes qualitative
descriptive method and applies American studies discipline which focuses on
Popular Culture
interdisciplinary approaches which are media and lifestyles theory combined with
psychology theory that focus on cyber bullying. In this study, the researcher takes the
main data from American public figures Twitter, moreover the supporting data takes
from several websites such as, American Psychological Association, American
Society for the Positive Care of Children, YouTube, and other online sources
that relate to the major object.
The researcher sums several important points of the result of this study concisely
as follows. First, cyber bullying on American public figures social media has various
forms, such as racism, sexualizing, body shaming, name calling and other inappropriate
comment as example, taunting, mocking and the worst is sent death wishes to the
victims. Second, the reactions of the victims are various either, some of them show
positive action reacts to the cyber bullying on their social media, and the rest are show
negative reactions, such as angriness, sadness and stressfulness.

I. INTRODUCTION Bullying is a serious issue that is always

interesting to discuss. From year-to-year

1
 bullying is also developing. Which was only
happened at school or work place now also
happens on social media. For example, as
happened recently, the impact of bullying on
social media that comes from entertainment
world recently. According to The Jakarta Post,
Korean singer-actress, Choi Jin-ri or well-
known as Sulli f(x), found dead at her house.
Police investigate that Sulli, execute suicide.
A suicide note found after the police found
Sulli’s death. Choi Jin-ri, or Sulli debuted as a
child actress and then became a member of
one Girl Group named f(x). Sulli went on long
hiatus after being the subject of hateful online
comments and rumors, these indicated as
factors triggering her suicide
(TheJakarataPost.com, 2019).
Although bullying is a dangerous and
has so much awful impact in reality,
prevention and treatment for this case is still
lacking. Especially in an all-sophisticated era
nowadays. Bullying is not enough to be done
by direct oppression, but also done on
Internet. Furthermore, progress on the Internet
brought more and more websites and with
this, came social media platform. And, every
day bullying that occur on social media or
people know that as cyber bullying is getting
more terrible.
As what Craig Donnellan on his book
entitled Bullying Issues said. Today, as
technology develops and becomes more
readily available, bullies are finding new and
innovative ways to pick on their victims.
Texting and emailing threatening messages
are another form of bullying that is on the rise,
with one in five children now reporting that
they have been bullied in this way (Donnellan
5).
Same with regular bullying, that has a
meaning according to Britannica is harassment
and harm-doing that occur intentionally that is
directed toward vulnerable targets and typically
repeated (Britannica.com, 2019). Cyber
bullying itself has a serious impact for the
victims, such as depression, anxiety, over
2
thinking, stressed and the worst is can lead the
victims to commit suicide, and these are having
an impact for all human being that received the
bullies, not only children, but also teenagers
and adults. And in this case no exception for
public figure, to received bullying or being the
hateful subject, especially the public figure that
has controversial life.
The public figure that became a victim
of cyber bullying usually get attacked by the
offender of bully from their social media
account, such as Instagram, YouTube,
Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter. Every single
person that has social media accounts can see
and follows public figure’s social media
account that they want to follow. And also,
they have access to leave comments on their
content. And the cyber bullying offender
usually use this comment section to do a
bully. Or else, people can do something
crueler such as, create social media account to
make a hate content or bullied content for
other people they want to against.
Just like regular bullying, cyber bullying
has several types, one of the types of cyber
bullying is like what the researcher explains
above, which the researcher involves to
analyze cyber bullying as seen in American
public figures Twitter.
II. METHODOLOGY
This paper is methodologically qualitative,
by gathering the data and presenting it into
descriptive. The researcher uses some
methods to conduct the study will be
explained as follows:
1. The Source of Data
a. Main Data
In this study the researcher uses a
collection of Twitter content and transcript of
comments section on the content from some
American public figure Twitter accounts from
2017-2020 as the primary data. Besides, the
researcher also utilizes Twitter content from
TMZ account and another online news portal
as another main data.
b. Supporting Data
 The researcher gathers another data from
several sources such as bullying percentage
form American Psychological Association,
American Society for the Positive Care of
Children, YouTube, and other online sources
that relates to the main issues.
2. Collecting Data Technique
The researcher uses some techniques in
collecting data in this study. The first, the
researcher collects data by observe some
American public figures Twitter account as
the main data. Second, the researcher gathers
some books that related to this study. Then
the, researcher downloads electronic sources
such as some journals, articles, and thesis that because of the differences in ethnic, religion,
related to the main issue to avoid plagiarism.
And the researcher also went to Self Access
Center in Universitas Ahmad Dahlan to search
some undergraduate thesis which is related to
the topic of research.
3. Analyzing Data Technique
The researcher takes the data from the
American public figures Twitter platform and
screen capture the comments by Twitter user
and analyze the comment based on the note of
cyber bullying along its topic, and then
collects another data from some social media
and several journals that have similar topic 2.
with the main issue. And the researcher also
reads any books from the online library.
Therefore, the researcher also searches some
files and scripts from others online sources.
The final step is the researcher organize and
analyze it into a discussion in this study.
III.RESULT AND DISCUSSION
In this chapter the researcher presents the painful word and criticize someone physical
discussion and focuses on explaining the
statements in the objective of the study from
the chapter one. This chapter will discuss the
verbal expressions of bullying among
American public figures as on Twitter and
discuss the analyze American public figures
reaction towards the verbal bullying on
Twitter. This chapter divides into two section.3. Name Calling
Firstly, are verbal bullying expressions among
American public figures. Secondly, is discuss
3
and analyzing American public figures
reaction towards verbal bullying as seen on
Twitter.
A. Verbal Bullying Expressions among
American Public Figures as Seen on
Twitter
The researcher explores the verbal
expression of bullying among American
public figures as seen on Twitter.
1. Racism
Racism is one form of verbal bullying
expression that experienced by American
public figure. Racist bullying usually occurs
race, physical appearance and cultural
practice. Moreover, racist bullying frequently
occurs because of the differences in skin
color, also some ethnic and race feel they have
more power than other, so they can intimidate
and discriminate others who they think are
minority and powerless. There are a lot
American public figures that got this type of
bullying, and the researcher choose Michelle
Obama, Kelly Marie Tran, and Kendall Jenner
as example of the victim of racist bullying that
occurs on Twitter.
Sexualizing and Body Shamming
The word sexualizing is sounded so
negative as well as body shaming, sexualizing
is a negative term that involve sex and
sexuality, sexualizing is when the victim body
parts became the sexualized object, sometimes
the clothes can be sexualized object as well
because it’s too shaped the body. While, body
shaming is when the perpetrators make a
appearance and become so judgmental about
that. Here the researcher put the example of
American public figures who became the
victim of the action of sexualizing and body
shaming expression among American public
figures on Twitter; Billie Eilish, and Melania
Trump.
 Name calling define as verbally abuse and
language abuse to other people, the example is
calling someone “you are trash” and so on.
This cases frequently occurs to American
figures, as a public figure they often times got
language abuse from their haters on their
social media. Some example of Name Calling
that occurs with American public figures are
Kylie Jenner, Donald Trump, Kris Jenner and
The Kardashian Clan. These are some
example of American public figures who got
name calling bullying on their Twitter.
4. Taunting and Inappropriate Comment
Taunting is one of many forms of
Bullying, taunting is an action when someone
attack a person by insulting and mocking
them. And inappropriate comment almost
same with taunting. Here some American
public figures who frequently get taunting
bullying by their haters on Twitter: This type
of bullying is also frequently type of bullying
that attack on American public figures on
Twitter, the public figures that include on the
victim of this action such as, Cardi B, Kanye
West, Greta Thunberg, Kylie Jenner and
Donald. They are all are the most often get
this type of bullying on their Twitter.
B. Victim’s Reactions of Verbal Bullying
as Seen on Twitter
There are several reactions from the
victims towards cyber bullying as seen on
their Twitter, some of them react with
madness, sadness and stressful, and another
negative reaction. In other hand, there are
some of them choose to show and take
positive reaction. And, for more detail, here
the researcher presents some of explanations
the victims react to the verbal bullying they
got on Twitter.
1. Michelle Obama who become the victim
of racism bullying show positive reaction.
2. Kelly Marie Tran, victim of racism
bullying also show positive reaction.
3. Kendall Jenner shows stressful and sad
reaction as she got racism bullying on her
Twitter.
4
4. Billie Eilish who become the target of
sexualizing and Body Shamming shoe the
reaction of feeling unsecured, threatened
and scared.
5. Melania Trump, target of sexualizing
bullying chose to doesn’t give any
reaction.
6. Kylie Jenner who become the victim of
multiple types of bullying show the
reaction of sad and angry.
7. Donald trump, same with Kylie, he also
became the victim of multiple types of
bullying on Twitter, but the difference is
he choose to doesn’t give any reaction
toward it.
8. Kris Jenner and The Kardashian Family
which choose to don’t give any reaction
toward name calling bullying they got on
Twitter.
9. Cardi B, show the reaction of angriness
and choose to attack the bullies back after
taunting and inappropriate bullying she got
on Twitter.
10. Kanye West, the victim of taunting and
inappropriate bullying shows angry
reaction toward it.
11. And last, Greta Thunberg who choose
attack the bullies back after taunting and
inappropriate bullying she got on Twitter.
12. Additionally, Twitter company which take
action to defend cyber bullying on Twitter,
by ban, suspend and blocking the users
who share hateful and violence content on
Twitter.
IV. CONCLUSION
In this study the researcher explores the
concept of Bullying in Social Media and finds
that the culmination of this undergraduate
thesis entitled Cyberbullying on Twitter
Experienced by American Public Figures can
be concluded into several points.
First, cyber bullying has various types and
expression, also, American public figures
obtained those various types of cyber bullying
expression on their Twitter as well, such as
racism, sexualizing, body shamming, name
calling and another inappropriate comment
such as taunting and the worst is death wishes.
Racism bullying is when the bullies left
comments or critics on Twitter offended their
differences of skin color or race. While
sexualizing is when the bullies convey
indecent things about American public figure.
And the bullies also left negative comment
about their physical appearance and body
shape. Another type of verbal bullying
expression is name calling, which are the
bullies call American public figures with such
an offensive and bad name, this is the type of
verbal bullying that mostly done to American
public figure. And also, there is inappropriate
comment type of bullying, the bullies usually
taunting and mocking at American public
figures, and the worst is the bullies send death
wishes to them.
Second, American public figures reaction
toward verbal bullying on their Twitter is
various as well. There are some of them react
with positive action, such as cheering
themselves up by quitting social media. And
there are some of them became sad and
stressful dealing with the bullies on their
Twitter. While, not less of them are getting
mad and angry because of the bullies keep
sending them bad things and stuff on their
Twitter, and they attack back on the bullies
with anger statement. Hence, the Twitter
company also takes some actions which is
ban, blocking, and suspend accounts who send
or create content that conclude harmful and
abusive language to hurt people on purpose, it
has rules and policy for users and account
who intentionally doing verbal bullying on
Twitter.
Additionally, the researcher would like to
draw how bad bullying are those. Even more
on this social media era, which bullying can
be occur to everyone who has social media
account. From this case, we can see that even
a public figure, or a president can be the
victim of bullying, and the impact of bullying
is not an easy deal. It can lead you to some
awful things such as psychological issue, law
problem and the worst is suicide. So, we need
to raise awareness to our social media account
these days, we need to have strong control to
our digital world and use it as wise as
possible. Besides, the researcher hopes this
research can be a reference in further research.
REFERENCES

[1] American Psychological Association. n.d. 20 October 2020.

<https://www.apa.org/topics/sex/index.html>.
[2] Bullying Definition, Statistics & Risk Factors. n.d. 2 January 2020.
<https://americanspcc.org/our-voice/bullying/statistics-and-information/>.
[3] Bullying statistics. December 2017. December 2019.
<https://www.pacer.org/bullying/resources/stats.asp>.
[4] BullyingUK: What Is Bullying? December 2019. 15 October 2020.
<https://www.bullying.co.uk/general-advice/what-is-bullying/>.
[5] Chaney, David. Cultural Change and Everyday Life. Hampshire: PALGRAVE, 2002.
[6] —. Lifestyles. Ed. Peter Hamilton. New York: Taylor & Francis, 2001.
[7] Cho, Sujung and Jeong Min Lee. "Explaining Physical, Verbal, and Social Bullying among
Bullies, Victims of Bullying, and Bully-victims: Assessing the Integrated Approach between

5
 Social Control and Lifestyles-Routine Activities Theories." Children and Youth Service
Review (2018): 13-14. 12 October 2020.
[8] Cloudry, Nick. Media, Society, World Social Theory and Digital Media Practice .
Cambridge: Polity Press, 2012.
[9] Coen, Sharon, et al. "Six Ways Twitter has Changed the World." (2016). 20 October 2020.
<https://theconversation.com/six-ways-twitter-has-changed-the-world-56234>.
[10] Cowie, Helen and Dawn Jennifer. New Perspectives on Bullying. London: Open
University Press, 2008.
[11] Donald J. Trump 45th President of the United States. n.d. 22 October 2020.
<https://www.whitehouse.gov/people/donald-j-trump/>.
[12] Donegan, Richard. "Bullying and Cyberbullying: History, Statistics, Law, Prevention and
Analysis." The Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications (2012): 34.
[13] Donnellan, Craig. Bullying Issues. London: Independence, 2006.
[14] EUN-BYEL, IM. South Korean singer and actor Sulli found dead. 14 October 2019. 22
October 2019. <https://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2019/10/14/south-korean-singer-and-
actor-sulli-found-dead.html>.
[15] Felmlee, Diane and Robert W Faris. Bullying; Social Behaviour. n.d. 10 December 2019.
<https://www.britannica.com/topic/bullying>.
[16] Hinduja, Sameer and Justin W Patchin. "Bullying, Cyberbullying, and Suicide."
International Academy for Suicide Research 3 (2010): 208.
[17] Hunter, Nick. Cyber Bullying (Hot Topic). Ed. Adam Miller, Andrew Farrow and Adrian
Vigliano. London: Capstone Globlal Library Limited, 2012.
[18] Hutchinson, Andrew. "Twitter Updates Hate Speech Policy to Include Links to 'Hateful'
Content." (2020). <https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/twitter-updates-hate-speech-
policy-to-include-links-to-hateful-content/582482/>.
[19] Jan, MS. Afroz and Dr. Shafqat Husain. "Bullying in Elementary Schools: Its Causes and
Effects on Students." Journal of Education and Practice (2015).
[20] Kirkpatrick, Emily. "Cardi B Has Deleted Her Twitter Account Again Because of “A
Whole Bunch of 15-Year-Olds Telling Me How to Live My Life”." (2020).
<https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2020/10/cardi-b-deletes-twitter-offset-releationship>.
[21] Kothari, C. R. Research Methodology Method & Techniques. New Delhi: New Age
International, 2004.
[22] Kowalski, Robin M, Chad A Morgan and Susan P Limber. "Traditional Bullying as a
potential warning sign of cyberbullying." School Psychology International (2012): 507.

6
[23] Laughey, Dan. Key Themes in Media Theory. Berkshire: Open University Press, 2007.
[24] Melania Trump First LAdy of the United States. n.d. 20 October 2020.
<https://www.whitehouse.gov/people/melania-trump/>.
[25] Meloy, J. Reid, Lorraine Sheridan and Jens Hoffman. Stalking, Threatening, and
Attacking Public FIgures: A Psychological and Behavioral Analysis. New York: Oxford
University Press, 2008.
[26] Michelle Obama. n.d. 20 October 2020. <https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-
house/first-ladies/michelle-obama/>.
[27] Murphy, Alexa Murphy. Dealing with Bullying. Ed. Madonna M Murphy, Ph. D. and
Sharon L Banas. New York: Chelsea House, 2009.
[28] Murthy, Dhiraj. Twitter: Social Communication in the Twitter Age. Cambridge: Polity
Press, 2013.
[29] Olweus, Dan. Bullying at School : What We Know and What We Can Do. Oxford:
Blackwell Publishing, 1993.
[30] O'Reilly, Tim and Sarah Milstein. The Twitter Book. California: O'Reilly Media, Inc.,
2009.
[31] Paul, Kari. "Tweets wishing for Trump's death violate Twitter policy, company says."
(2020). <https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/oct/02/twitter-trump-death-threats-
covid-19-policy>.
[32] "Racist Bullying." Victoria State Government Education and Training (2020). 20
October 2020. <https://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/programs/bullystoppers/Pages/
racistbullying.aspx>.
[33] Robehmed, Natalie. "At 21, Kylie Jenner Becomes The Youngest Self-Made Billionaire
Ever." Forbes (2019). <https://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/2019/03/05/at-21-
kylie-jenner-becomes-the-youngest-self-made-billionaire-ever/#3f869ef42794>.
[34] —. "Highest-Paid Models 2018: Kendall Jenner Leads With $22.5 Million." Forbes
(2018). <https://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/2018/12/13/highest-paid-models-
2018-kendall-jenner-leads-with-22-5-million/#5923e2fb3ddf>.
[35] Strauss, Jordan. "Kelly Marie Tran: I Won’t Be Marginalized by Online Harassment."
The New York Times (2018). <https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/movies/kelly-marie-
tran.html>.
[36] Tracy, Sarah J. "Qualitative Research Methods: Collecting Evidence, Crafting Analysis,
Communicating Impact." Tracy, Sarah J. Qualitative Research Methods: Collecting
Evidence, Crafting Analysis, Communicating Impact. West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd,
2013. 3.

7
[37] Webb, Khaterine. "Star Wars’ Kelly Marie Tran Reflects On Her Decision To Quit Social
Media." (2020). <https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2556074/star-wars-kelly-marie-tran-
reflects-on-her-decision-to-quit-social-media>.
[38] Weber, Nicole L. and William V. Pelfrey, Jr. Cyberbullying, Causes, Consequences, and
Coping Strategies. Ed. Nicholas P. Lovrich. El Paso: Library of Congress Cataloging-in-
Publication Data, 2014.