Moralizing (un)civil behaviour. The case of interpellations on Facebook

Márquez Reiter, Rosina and Bou-Franch, Patricia (2024). Moralizing (un)civil behaviour. The case of interpellations on Facebook. In: Haugh, Michael and Márquez Reiter, Rosina eds. Morality in Discourse. Oxford Studies in Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press (In Press).

Abstract

This chapter explores the multiplicity of citizens’ moralizing discourses resulting from a controversial bill in Uruguay to protect vulnerable people from the dangers of second-hand smoke but excluded cannabis consumption, whose recreational use is legal and observed in public spaces. Moralizing discourses, understood as communicative practices, are examined by drawing on the notion of interpellations. A sociopragmatic analysis of a corpus of user-generated comments from the Facebook page of a Uruguayan broadsheet reporting the bill revealed four main themes around which commenters constructed moralizing discourses regarding civil and moral expectations in public space: politics and (lack of) regulation of tobacco/cannabis use, personal attacks, relational violence in public/private space, and citizen insecurity. The findings show how commenters reflexively question the contemporary social order as being increasingly permeated by relational violence. They bring into focus the moral expectancies of civility in the lived face-to-face and digital experiences of modern citizens.