scholarly journals Hidden order across online extremist movements can be disrupted by nudging collective chemistry

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Velásquez ◽  
P. Manrique ◽  
R. Sear ◽  
R. Leahy ◽  
N. Johnson Restrepo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
System Level ◽  
Online Support ◽  
Online Interactions ◽  
Hidden Order ◽  
Terrorist Organization ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Fresh Insight ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractDisrupting the emergence and evolution of potentially violent online extremist movements is a crucial challenge. Extremism research has analyzed such movements in detail, focusing on individual- and movement-level characteristics. But are there system-level commonalities in the ways these movements emerge and grow? Here we compare the growth of the Boogaloos, a new and increasingly prominent U.S. extremist movement, to the growth of online support for ISIS, a militant, terrorist organization based in the Middle East that follows a radical version of Islam. We show that the early dynamics of these two online movements follow the same mathematical order despite their stark ideological, geographical, and cultural differences. The evolution of both movements, across scales, follows a single shockwave equation that accounts for heterogeneity in online interactions. These scientific properties suggest specific policies to address online extremism and radicalization. We show how actions by social media platforms could disrupt the onset and ‘flatten the curve’ of such online extremism by nudging its collective chemistry. Our results provide a system-level understanding of the emergence of extremist movements that yields fresh insight into their evolution and possible interventions to limit their growth.

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.

Zakir Naik and His Audiences: A Case Study of Srinagar, Kashmir

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-222
Author(s):  
Raoof Mir
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Jammu And Kashmir ◽  
Or Groups ◽  
Indian State ◽  
Fresh Insight ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Religious Worldviews

Most literature on Mumbai-based Muslim tele-Islamicist Zakir Naik offers an organizational, biographical and ideological profile. This approach has concealed the symbolic significance attached to Naik by his audiences. This paper attempts to explore not only who and what Naik is, but how and where he is located. By incorporating ethnographic and cultural studies approaches, this paper offers fresh insight into Naik and his methods of communicating religion. Taking Srinagar, a city in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, as an ethnographic site, this paper explores how Muslim individuals or groups interpret Naik in relation to their religious worldviews. The articulation of Islam by Zakir Naik through media platforms such as television and social media has contributed to a religious trend in Kashmir, in which people have discovered new ways to think about themselves and to participate in discourses about religion that would have been unthinkable a few decades ago.

scholarly journals Classification Connection of Twitter Data using K-Means Clustering

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (6S4) ◽  
pp. 14-22
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Clustering Methods ◽  
Time Analysis ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Dynamic Data ◽  
Real Time Analysis ◽  
Twitter Data ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Insight Into

The rise of social media platforms like Twitter and the increasing adoption by people in order to stay connected provide a large source of data to perform analysis based on the various trends, events and even various personalities. Such analysis also provides insight into a person’s likes and inclinations in real time independent of the data size. Several techniques have been created to retrieve such data however the most efficient technique is clustering. This paper provides an overview of the algorithms of the various clustering methods as well as looking at their efficiency in determining trending information. The clustered data may be further classified by topics for real time analysis on a large dynamic data set. In this paper, data classification is performed and analyzed for flaws followed by another classification on the same data set.

scholarly journals Why it is important to consider negative ties when studying polarized debates: A signed network analysis of a Dutch cultural controversy on Twitter

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. e0256696
Author(s):  
Anna Keuchenius ◽  
Petter Törnberg ◽  
Justus Uitermark
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Network Analysis ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
User Interaction ◽  
User Interactions ◽  
Online Interactions ◽  
Network Analyses ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Signed Network

Despite the prevalence of disagreement between users on social media platforms, studies of online debates typically only look at positive online interactions, represented as networks with positive ties. In this paper, we hypothesize that the systematic neglect of conflict that these network analyses induce leads to misleading results on polarized debates. We introduce an approach to bring in negative user-to-user interaction, by analyzing online debates using signed networks with positive and negative ties. We apply this approach to the Dutch Twitter debate on ‘Black Pete’—an annual Dutch celebration with racist characteristics. Using a dataset of 430,000 tweets, we apply natural language processing and machine learning to identify: (i) users’ stance in the debate; and (ii) whether the interaction between users is positive (supportive) or negative (antagonistic). Comparing the resulting signed network with its unsigned counterpart, the retweet network, we find that traditional unsigned approaches distort debates by conflating conflict with indifference, and that the inclusion of negative ties changes and enriches our understanding of coalitions and division within the debate. Our analysis reveals that some groups are attacking each other, while others rather seem to be located in fragmented Twitter spaces. Our approach identifies new network positions of individuals that correspond to roles in the debate, such as leaders and scapegoats. These findings show that representing the polarity of user interactions as signs of ties in networks substantively changes the conclusions drawn from polarized social media activity, which has important implications for various fields studying online debates using network analysis.

scholarly journals Posting About Cancer: Predicting Social Support in Imgur Comments

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 205630512096520
Author(s):  
Brent J. Hale ◽  
Ryan Collins ◽  
Danielle K. Kilgo
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Online Support ◽  
Support Provision ◽  
Coping With Cancer ◽  
Social Media Site ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Previous Scholarship

People who are affected by cancer can benefit greatly from social support and digital social networks, though our understanding of online support is primarily founded in dominant platforms like Facebook. In addition, while previous scholarship indicates that social support is available online, little research has examined predictors of support provision. A content analysis was performed to examine the relationship between narrative features in Imgur posts and social support in comments. Imgur ( Imgur.com ) is a social media site and image-hosting platform, amassing over 250 million monthly visitors. Six post features were hypothesized to predict support, including explanations of the diagnosis experience, evidence of agentive problem solving, indications of positive reappraisal, pleads for the audience to get a checkup, references to mortality, and inclusion of humor. The results of this study indicate a relationship between narrative construction and social support, finding that the inclusion of narrative features in cancer-related posts influenced the provision of support in comments. Findings of this study could have implications for a multitude of stakeholders interested in social support provision, including healthcare professionals and researchers interested in the use of social media platforms for support, and organizations interested in designing supportive online platforms for individuals coping with cancer.

Social Media Use Among Olympians and Sport Journalists in Hungary

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-199
Author(s):  
Agnes Kovacs ◽  
Tamas Doczi ◽  
Dunja Antunovic
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
The World ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Media ◽  
Hungarian Case ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into

The Olympic Games are among the most followed events in the world, so athletes who participate there are exceptionally interesting for the media. This research investigated Olympians’ social media use, sport journalists’ attitudes about Olympians’ social media use, and the role of social media in the relationship between Olympians and sport journalists in Hungary. The findings suggest that most Hungarian Olympians do not think that being on social media is an exceptionally key issue in their life, and a significant portion of them do not have public social media pages. However, sport journalists would like to see more information about athletes on social media platforms. The Hungarian case offers not only a general understanding of the athlete–journalist relationship, and the role of social media in it, but also insight into the specific features of the phenomenon in a state-supported, hybrid sport economy.

scholarly journals Violence and Trolling on Social Media

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Media Studies ◽  
Digital Communication ◽  
Media History ◽  
Media Discourse ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Insight Into

‘Trolls for Trump’, virtual rape, fake news — social media discourse, including forms of virtual and real violence, has become a formidable, yet elusive, political force. What characterizes online vitriol? How do we understand the narratives generated, and also address their real-world — even life-and-death— impact? How can hatred, bullying, and dehumanization on social media platforms be addressed and countered in a post-truth world? Violence and Trolling on Social Media: History, Affect, and Effects of Online Vitriol unpacks discourses, metaphors, dynamics, and framing on social media, in order to begin to answer these questions. Written for and by cultural and media studies scholars, journalists, political philosophers, digital communication professionals, activists and advocates, this book connects theoretical approaches from cultural and media studies with practical challenges and experiences ‘from the field’, providing insight into a rough media landscape.

scholarly journals Influence of Social Media on the Indian Population’s Perception of Orthodontic-Related Posts: A Mixed Method Analysis

2021 ◽  
pp. 030157422110262
Author(s):  
Tarulatha R Shyagali ◽  
Ayesha Rathore ◽  
Abhishek Gupta ◽  
Anil Tiwari ◽  
Shanya Kapoor ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Orthodontic Treatment ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
Fully Integrated ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Chi Square Test ◽  
Method Analysis ◽  
Insight Into

Introduction: In little more than a decade, social media has gone from being an entertainment source to a fully integrated part of nearly every aspect of daily life. This study aimed to provide an insight into how orthodontics-related social media posts are looked upon by the Indian population. Material and Methods: Orthodontics-related social media posts were analyzed for the number of likes, shares, and comments. Comments were also scrutinized for determining whether they were appreciation comments or enquiries related to orthodontic treatment and procedure. Posts were collected from 3 platforms: Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. A mixed-methods approach was applied. First, all posts were structured according to a quantitative content analysis. Subsequently, qualitative analysis was performed to detect potential differences between the quality of response to posts on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Using one-way ANOVA test, differences in the data were tabulated. A Chi- Square test was used to analyze the qualitative differences in the comments, which were scrutinized to check if they were appreciation comments or enquiries/doubts related to the posts. Results: There was a significant difference between the numbers of likes, shares, and comments. Appreciation comments were more in number than enquiries. Instagram had the maximum number of likes, followed by Facebook and Twitter ( P < .00001). Facebook had more shares in comparison to Twitter. Upon an analysis done on the number of comments, Facebook was found to have the highest number of comments, followed by Instagram and Twitter. All the results were significant, with P < .00001. Conclusion: It can be concluded that social media awareness related to orthodontics posts among Indians is gaining pace, and a lot can be achieved using these social media platforms to spread awareness related to orthodontic treatment.

scholarly journals Interaction and Transformation on Social Media: The Case of Twitter Campaigns

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 205630511775072 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Housley ◽  
Helena Webb ◽  
Meredydd Williams ◽  
Rob Procter ◽  
Adam Edwards ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Media Analysis ◽  
Social Media Analysis ◽  
Media Campaigns ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Insight Into

The increasing popularity of social media platforms creates new digital social networks in which individuals can interact and share information, news, and opinion. The use of these technologies appears to have the capacity to transform current social configurations and relations, not least within the public and civic spheres. Within the social sciences, much emphasis has been placed on conceptualizing social media’s role in modern society and the interrelationships between online and offline actors and events. In contrast, little attention has been paid to exploring user practices on social media and how individual posts respond to each other. To demonstrate the value of an interactional approach toward social media analysis, we performed a detailed analysis of Twitter-based online campaigns. After categorizing social media posts based on action(s), we developed a typology of user exchanges. We found these social media campaigns to be highly heterogeneous in content, with a wide range of actions performed and substantial numbers of tweets not engaged with the substance of the campaign. We argue that this interactional approach can form the basis for further work conceptualizing the broader impact of activist campaigns and the treatment of social media as “data” more generally. In this way, analytic focus on interactional practices on social media can provide empirical insight into the micro-transformational characteristics within “campaign communication.”

Jihadist Propaganda on Social Media

2020 ◽  
pp. 1442-1457
Author(s):  
Ahmed Al-Rawi ◽  
Jacob Groshek
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Big Data ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Research Study ◽  
Al Qaeda ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Gradual Decline ◽  
Online Interactions ◽  
Terrorist Groups ◽  
Insight Into

This article focuses on ISIS followers on Twitter in an effort to understand the nature of their social media propaganda. The research study provides unique insight into one of the largest data sets that investigates ISIS propaganda efforts on Twitter by examining over 50 million tweets posted by more than 8 million unique users that referenced the keywords “ISIS” or “ISIL.” The authors then searched this corpus for eight keywords in Arabic that included terms of support for ISIS and the names of different Al-Qaeda leaders. A mixed research method was used, and the findings indicate that ISIS activity on Twitter witnessed a gradual decline, but the group was still able to post different types of tweets to maintain its online presence. Also, the feud between ISIS and Al-Qaeda was intense, ongoing, and prevalent in online interactions among ISIS followers. The study provides an understanding of using big data to better grasp the propaganda activities of terrorist groups.

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