scholarly journals A customisable pipeline for the semi-automated discovery of online activists and social campaigns on Twitter

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flavio Primo ◽  
Alexander Romanovsky ◽  
Rafael de Mello ◽  
Alessandro Garcia ◽  
Paolo Missier
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Empirical Evaluation ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Social Media Networks ◽  
Social Events ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Online Activism ◽  
Automated Discovery ◽  
The Uk

AbstractSubstantial research is available on detecting influencers on social media platforms. In contrast, comparatively few studies exists on the role of online activists, defined informally as users who actively participate in socially-minded online campaigns. Automatically discovering activists who can potentially be approached by organisations that promote social campaigns is important, but not easy, as they are typically active only locally, and, unlike influencers, they are not central to large social media networks. We make the hypothesis that such interesting users can be found on Twitter within temporally and spatially localised contexts. We define these as small but topical fragments of the network, containing interactions about social events or campaigns with a significant online footprint. To explore this hypothesis, we have designed an iterative discovery pipeline consisting of two alternating phases of user discovery and context discovery. Multiple iterations of the pipeline result in a growing dataset of user profiles for activists, as well as growing set of online social contexts. This mode of exploration differs significantly from prior techniques that focus on influencers, and presents unique challenges because of the weak online signal available to detect activists. The paper describes the design and implementation of the pipeline as a customisable software framework, where user-defined operational definitions of online activism can be explored. We present an empirical evaluation on two extensive case studies, one concerning healthcare-related campaigns in the UK during 2018, the other related to online activism in Italy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

New Media and Terrorism

2014 ◽  
pp. 184-196
Author(s):  
Pauline Hope Cheong
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
New Media ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
War On Terrorism ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Social Media Networks ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Hearts And Minds ◽  
Video Material

Beyond the widespread coverage of terrorism-related stories on international news outlets, we are witnessing the swift spread of alternative interpretations of these stories online. These alternative narratives typically involve digital transmediation or the remix, remediation, and viral dissemination of textual, audio, and video material on multiple new and social media platforms. This chapter discusses the role of new(er) media in facilitating the transmediated spread of extremist narratives, rumors, and political parody. Drawing from recent case studies based upon multi-modal analyses of digital texts on social media networks, including blogs, vlogs, Twitter, and Jihadist sites associated with acts of terror in Asia, Middle East, and North America, the chapter illustrates how digital transmediation significantly works oftentimes to construct counter narratives to government counter insurgency operations and mainstream media presentations. In discussing these examples, the chapter demonstrates how the new media points to varied narratives and reifies notions of national security, global politics, terrorism, and the media's role in framing the “War on Terrorism.” Moreover, a critical examination of remix texts and digital mashups of popular artifacts inform a Web 2.0 understanding of how the creative communication practices of online prosumers (hybrid consumers and producers) contest dominant interests in the online ideological battlefield for hearts and minds.

Social Media for Political Change

2015 ◽  
pp. 55-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamad Alkhouja
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Power Balance ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Online Activism ◽  
Inherent Nature ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Media Firms ◽  
The Impact

This chapter discusses the role of social media in the uprisings of the Arab world. It argues that the seemingly democratizing impact of online activism is not due to the inherent nature of social media as a tool for democracy but rather an outcome of the equilibrium of forces that shaped the use of social media platforms by all three main players. Activists, governments, and social media firms formed a triangle of powers that influenced the use of social media during the Arab movements. In a different context, the outcome of such power balance can arguably inhibit citizens' rights and empower governments. To this end, the chapter first explores the use of social media platforms from the perspective of activists, governments, and social media firms, then presents a framework to understand the impact of all three in shaping the use of social media during the uprisings. The chapter then concludes that the projections of the role of social media on other movements in the world must not be made without understanding the underlying complexities and dynamics of these movements.

Social Media for Political Change

2014 ◽  
pp. 26-36
Author(s):  
Mohamad Alkhouja
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Power Balance ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Online Activism ◽  
Inherent Nature ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Media Firms ◽  
The Impact

This chapter discusses the role of social media in the uprisings of the Arab world. It argues that the seemingly democratizing impact of online activism is not due to the inherent nature of social media as a tool for democracy but rather an outcome of the equilibrium of forces that shaped the use of social media platforms by all three main players. Activists, governments, and social media firms formed a triangle of powers that influenced the use of social media during the Arab movements. In a different context, the outcome of such power balance can arguably inhibit citizens' rights and empower governments. To this end, the chapter first explores the use of social media platforms from the perspective of activists, governments, and social media firms, then presents a framework to understand the impact of all three in shaping the use of social media during the uprisings. The chapter then concludes that the projections of the role of social media on other movements in the world must not be made without understanding the underlying complexities and dynamics of these movements.

scholarly journals Mummy Blogs and Representations of Motherhood: “Bad Mummies” and Their Readers

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630511770718 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Orton-Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Social Media Networks ◽  
Digital Curation ◽  
Digital Terrain ◽  
Child Relationship ◽  
Mother Child Relationship ◽  
Networked Publics

Digital technologies have opened up new environments in which the experiences of motherhood and mothering are narrated and negotiated. Studies of “mummy blogs” have explored the ways in which blogs, as social media networks, can provide solace, support, and social capital for mothers. However, research has not addressed how mothers, as readers of blogs, use the mamasphere as a cultural site through which the identities and role of motherhood, and the mother–child relationship, are socially and digitally (re)constructed. This article focuses on confessional blogging of the “bad” or “slummy” mummy: blogs that share stories of boredom, frustration, and maternal deficiency while relishing the subversive status of the “bad” mummy. Drawing on understandings of social media as a space of social surveillance and networked publics, the article argues that in framing narratives of motherhood in terms of parental failure and a desperation for gin, “bad mummy” blogs collapse social contexts in important and interesting ways. Using an example of a conflict between two mummy bloggers, the article will reflect on the ways in which the digital terrain of motherhood can both liberate and constrain: a space for mothers to express and share frustrations and seek solidarity, a space of public condemnation and judgment, and a space that poses ethical issues in the digital curation of family life.

Coming out of the closet? Audience reactions to the heteronormative disruptive advertising

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-102
Author(s):  
Ramasela Semang L. Mathobela ◽  
Shepherd Mpofu ◽  
Samukezi Mrubula-Ngwenya
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Coming Out ◽  
Gender Issues ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Positive Development ◽  
Global Trend ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Media

An emerging global trend of brands advertising their products through LGBTIQ+ individuals and couples indicates growth of gender awareness across the globe. The media, through advertising, deconstructs homophobia and associated cultures through the use of LGBTIQ+s in commercials. This qualitative research paper centres the advancement of debates on human rights and social media as critical in the interaction between corporates and consumers. The Gillette, Chicken Licken‘s Soul Sisters and We the Brave advertisements were used to critically analyse how audiences react to the use of LGBTIQ+ characters and casts through comments posted on the brands‘ social media platforms. Further, the paper explored the role of social media in the mediation of significant gender issues such as homosexuality that are considered taboo to engage in. The paper used a qualitative approach. Using the digital ethnography method to observe comments and interactions from the chosen advertisement‘s online platforms, the paper employed queer and constructionist theories to deconstruct discourses around same-sex relations as used in commercials, especially in quasiconservative. The data used in the paper included thirty comments of the brands customers and audiences obtained from Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. The paper concludes there are positive development in human rights awareness as seen through advertisements and campaigns that use LGBTIQ+ communities in a positive light across the world.

Revolutionizing Mental Health with Social Media

2019 ◽  
pp. 259-284
Author(s):  
Munmun De Choudhury
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Linguistic Expression ◽  
Ethical Considerations ◽  
Self Disclosure ◽  
Vulnerable Communities ◽  
Tailored Interventions ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Social Media Platforms

Social media platforms have emerged as rich repositories of information relating to people’s activities, emotions, and linguistic expression. This chapter highlights how these data may be harnessed to reason about human mental and psychological well-being. It also discusses the emergent role of social media in providing a platform of self-disclosure and support to distressed and vulnerable communities. It reflects on how this new line of research bears potential for informing the design of timely and tailored interventions, provisions for improved personal and societal well-being assessment, privacy and ethical considerations, and the challenges and opportunities of the increasing ubiquity of social media.

A market-based rationale for the privacy paradox

2021 ◽  
pp. 016344372110158
Author(s):  
Opeyemi Akanbi
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Market Structures ◽  
Media Companies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Privacy Paradox ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Privacy Risks ◽  
Social Collective

Moving beyond the current focus on the individual as the unit of analysis in the privacy paradox, this article examines the misalignment between privacy attitudes and online behaviors at the level of society as a collective. I draw on Facebook’s market performance to show how despite concerns about privacy, market structures drive user, advertiser and investor behaviors to continue to reward corporate owners of social media platforms. In this market-oriented analysis, I introduce the metaphor of elasticity to capture the responsiveness of demand for social media to the data (price) charged by social media companies. Overall, this article positions social media as inelastic, relative to privacy costs; highlights the role of the social collective in the privacy crises; and ultimately underscores the need for structural interventions in addressing privacy risks.

scholarly journals Us Mob Online: The Perils of Identifying as Indigenous on Social Media

Genealogy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Bronwyn Carlson ◽  
Tristan Kennedy
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Digital Environment ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Insight Into

Social media is a highly valuable site for Indigenous people to express their identities and to engage with other Indigenous people, events, conversations, and debates. While the role of social media for Indigenous peoples is highly valued for public articulations of identity, it is not without peril. Drawing on the authors’ recent mixed-methods research in Australian Indigenous communities, this paper presents an insight into Indigenous peoples’ experiences of cultivating individual and collective identities on social media platforms. The findings suggest that Indigenous peoples are well aware of the intricacies of navigating a digital environment that exhibits persistent colonial attempts at the subjugation of Indigenous identities. We conclude that, while social media remains perilous, Indigenous people are harnessing online platforms for their own ends, for the reinforcement of selfhood, for identifying and being identified and, as a vehicle for humour and subversion.

scholarly journals Social Media Toxicity Classification Using Deep Learning: Real-World Application UK Brexit

Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 1332
Author(s):  
Hong Fan ◽  
Wu Du ◽  
Abdelghani Dahou ◽  
Ahmed A. Ewees ◽  
Dalia Yousri ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
User Generated Content ◽  
Real World Application ◽  
Proposed Model ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Public Dataset ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Harmful Side Effect

Social media has become an essential facet of modern society, wherein people share their opinions on a wide variety of topics. Social media is quickly becoming indispensable for a majority of people, and many cases of social media addiction have been documented. Social media platforms such as Twitter have demonstrated over the years the value they provide, such as connecting people from all over the world with different backgrounds. However, they have also shown harmful side effects that can have serious consequences. One such harmful side effect of social media is the immense toxicity that can be found in various discussions. The word toxic has become synonymous with online hate speech, internet trolling, and sometimes outrage culture. In this study, we build an efficient model to detect and classify toxicity in social media from user-generated content using the Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT). The BERT pre-trained model and three of its variants has been fine-tuned on a well-known labeled toxic comment dataset, Kaggle public dataset (Toxic Comment Classification Challenge). Moreover, we test the proposed models with two datasets collected from Twitter from two different periods to detect toxicity in user-generated content (tweets) using hashtages belonging to the UK Brexit. The results showed that the proposed model can efficiently classify and analyze toxic tweets.

Physical Distancing and Social Media Use in Emerging and Older Adults During COVID-19: Large Scale Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Survey Study (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thabo J van Woudenberg ◽  
Roy Hendrikx ◽  
Moniek Buijzen ◽  
Julia CM van Weert ◽  
Bas van den Putte ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Emerging Adults ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Longitudinal Survey ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
Random Intercept ◽  
Social Media Platforms

BACKGROUND Although emerging adults play a role in the spread of COVID-19, they are less likely to develop severe symptoms after infection. Emerging adults’ relatively high use of social media as source of information raises concerns regarding COVID-19 related behavioral compliance (i.e., physical distancing) in this age group. OBJECTIVE Therefore, the current study investigated physical distancing in emerging adults in comparison to older adults and looked at the role of using social media for COVID-19 news and information in this regard. In addition, this study explored the relation between physical distancing and different social media platforms and sources. METHODS Secondary data of a large-scale national longitudinal survey (N = 123,848, 34.% male) between April and November 2020 were used. Participants indicated, ranging for one to eight waves, how often they were successful in keeping 1.5 meters distance on a 7-point Likert scale. Participants between 18 and 24 years old were considered young adults and older participants were identified as older adults. Also, a dummy variable was created to indicate per wave whether participants used social media for COVID-19 news and information. A subset received follow-up questions asking participants to indicate which platforms they have used and what sources of news and information they had seen on social media. All preregistered hypotheses were tested with Linear Mixed-Effects Models and Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Models. RESULTS Emerging adults reported less physical distancing behaviors than older adults (b = -.08, t(86213.83) = -26.79, p < .001). Also, emerging adults were more likely to use social media for COVID-19 news and information (b = 2.48, SE = .11, Wald = 23.66, p = <.001), which mediated the association with physical distancing, but only to a small extend (indirect effect: b = -0.03, 95% CI = [-0.04; -0.02]). Opposed to our hypothesis, the longitudinal Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model showed no evidence that physical distancing was predicted by social media use of the previous wave. However, we did find evidence that using social media affected subsequent physical distancing behavior. Moreover, additional analyses showed that most social media platforms (i.e., YouTube, Facebook and Instagram) and interpersonal communication showed negative associations with physical distancing while others platforms (i.e. LinkedIn and Twitter) and Governmental messages showed no to a slightly positive associations with physical distancing. CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, we should be vigilant for physical distancing of emerging adults, but this study give no reason the to worry about the role of social media for COVID-19 news and information. However, as some social media platforms and sources showed negative associations, future studies should more carefully look into these factors to better understand the associations between social media use for news and information, and behavioral interventions in times of crisis.

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