A Study Investigating Depictions of Workplace Bullying in Hollywood Films

The presentation will focus on the investigative portrayal and depiction of workplace bullying from a sample of 100 popular Hollywood films over the past two decades. It will highlight the theoretical underpinnings of film theory, social construction theory, and symbolic interaction theory. The Hymes’ SPEAKING Model, a well-established ethnographic communication method (Hymes, 1974), will also be discussed because of its rich interpretive and descriptive nature and its focus on analyzing communication and interaction in terms of both verbal and nonverbal exchanges. The findings shed new light on understanding the portrayals of workplace bullying in contemporary films and how this impacts media and other critical topics that we are facing in today’s society, such as systemic racism, structural violence, and broken relations between law enforcement and communities.