Dissemination

PROPS Project is part of volume III of the ‘Online Hate Speech Trilogy’ collection

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CIAC researchers Ana Filipa Martins, Bruno Mendes da Silva, Alexandre Martins and Susana Costa published the chapter ‘The PROPS Project: Interactive Narratives as Counterpoints to Online Hate Speech in Video Games’, as part of volume III of the Online Hate Speech Trilogy collection coordinated by researcher Di Branco.

The third book in the Trilogy focuses on presenting methods for detecting, analysing and combating toxic language on the Internet. Alongside the legal dilemmas that arise from the desire to punish the disseminators of hate speech, the identification of hate speech online is one of the biggest challenges in the field of studies on violent narratives and virtual attacks. The authors analyse the challenges of identifying violent narratives through automation, the advantages of manually coding social media posts, and the opportunities offered by AI in this field of research.

The researchers’ chapter deals with the project PROPS — Interactive Narratives Propose Pluralist Speech in which they participated in its creation and development. It is an initiative funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, developed by the University of Algarve, University of Beira Interior, Santarém Polytechnic University and Universidade Aberta.

PROPS is a project focused on media education, aimed at curbing hate speech in online video games. The objective is to address this problem in online gaming by developing multiple interactive digital narratives designed to attract, motivate, and engage educators, teachers, children, and young people in reflecting on and discussing OHS.

One of the goals of this project is to enhance understanding of the complexities inherent in gaming communities. To achieve this, the project’s team conducted a comprehensive study using a variety of data collection tools and techniques, incorporating both quantitative and qualitative data processing methods. This approach allowed the project’s group to gain a deeper understanding into this topic and field of study. By employing surveys and focus groups as data collection tools, the team was able to gather perspectives from young gamers regarding their experiences with offensive messages, toxic online environments, and game conduct norms.

The book is in open access and download is free, more information (here)

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