A criminal, or not a criminal? That is the question: Egyptians’ attitudinal positioning in YouTube comments

The present study examines a sample of the written comments and replies to a YouTubed confession video of the murder case of a female student by her male colleague that sparked an immense amount of dispute among Egyptians on social media. The main aim is to find the users’ attitudinal positioning through the analysis of their evaluative language and the way it is constructed. Relying on a qualitative approach with discourse analysis techniques, Martin and White's (2005) Appraisal framework is applied, as it provides the text-analytical tools required to identify and distinguish the various appraisal systems employed. The study focuses on two main aspects: affect (emotion) and judgment (ethics), along with their sub-types. The findings of the paper reflect an evaluation gamut of certain attitudes which mainly blame the victim; such a gamut seems to be underlain by a patriarchal gender ideology that still pervades today's Egyptian society.