* Warning: Today’s episode contains discussions of threatening communication *
What makes something a threat? In today’s episode, our hosts Dr Nicci MacLeod and Professor Tim Grant are joined by Dr Isabel Picornell, who tells us about a case in which this was the central question.
May 3rd, 2021, Scotland. Three days before the Scottish Parliament election and amidst fervent jabs being traded from supporters from all sides, a certain tweet stood out. “See you Galloway, we will get you, ye understand??” Twitter (now X) user @KyleHibee07 posted. This was condemned by supporters of the intended recipient, George Galloway, running for a seat at the time, who took this as a threat on the ex-Labour MP’s life. Our hosts and guest explore the issue of identifying threatening communications by examining this tweet.
Have a question for Nicci or Tim? Email us at writingwrongs@aston.ac.uk and we mayanswer it during an upcoming episode!
Check out the official AIFL blog for more forensic linguistic goodieshere: https://medium.com/@AIFLblog
If you have been affected by any of the themes in this week’s episode, please contact one of these free sources:
https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/
https://www.helpguide.org/find-help
Production Team: Jordan Robertson, Neus Alberich Buera, Karolina Placzynta, James Cresswell
Sound: James Cresswell
Editing: Angela Walker
Visual design: George Grant
Additional Voices: Mike Clarkson, Ian MacArthur, BrynMacArthur, Louise Martin, Ali Murray, David Steele, Paula Steele
With our thanks to Dr Isabel Picornell
Artwork image credits
Artwork image of George Galloway: By David Hunt from Warwickshire, UK - Stop The War - 32 - George Galloway, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3002252
Artwork image of Scottish flag: Jawad Ali on Vecteezy https://www.vecteezy.com/free-png/scotland-flag-waving
Artwork of An Incident in the Rebellion of 1745, an oil on canvas, painting by David Morier is out of copyright and taken from the Wikipedia link below.
For the painting that was part of the original tweet and to find out more about the battle of Culloden see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Culloden#/media/File:The_Battle_of_Culloden.jpg
Professor Tim Grant’s home page: Tim Grant - Aston Research Explorer
Dr Nicci MacLeod’s home page:Nicci MacLeod - Aston Research Explorer
Dr Isabel Picornell’s webpage: Forensic Linguistics | Qedforensics
Dr Isabel Picornell’s latest book, The Linguistics of Analysing Deception in Written Texts: https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/abs/linguistics-of-analysing-deception-in-written-texts/C257606CC51F70AAED702FBBDE7C41EC
