Twitter Wars

2018 ◽  
pp. 157-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Siegel
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Political Protest ◽  
Network Structures ◽  
Minority Status ◽  
Protest Movements ◽  
Twitter Users ◽  
Demographic Distribution

Amid mounting death tolls in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, sectarian discourse is on the rise across the Arab world—particularly in the online sphere, where extremist voices are amplified and violent imagery and rhetoric spreads rapidly. Despite this, social media also provides a space for cross-sectarian discourse and activism. Analysis of over 7 million Arabic tweets from February to August 2015 suggests that violent events and social network structures play key roles in the transmission of this sectarian and countersectarian rhetoric on Twitter. The vast majority of tweets containing anti-Shia, anti-Sunni, or countersectarian rhetoric were sent from the Gulf and were especially concentrated in Saudi Arabia, mirroring Twitter’s demographic distribution across the Arab world, as well as rising tensions and regime crackdowns on the Saudi Shia population. Anti-Shia rhetoric is much more common online than anti-Sunni or countersectarian rhetoric, reflecting the minority status of Shia throughout the region and the manner in which anti-Shia rhetoric is amplified by influential Twitter users with millions of followers. While social media has facilitated Sunni-Shia interaction online, including the coordination of joint political protest movements, today countersectarian rhetoric is often dismissed or decried as pro-Shia propaganda.

Discussion, news information, and research sharing on social media at the onset of Covid-19

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyejin Park ◽  
J. Patrick Biddix ◽  
Han Woo Park
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
World Health ◽  
Network Structures ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Twitter Users ◽  
Statistical Relationships ◽  
Health Organization

Social media platforms provide valuable insights into public conversations. They likewise aid in understanding current issues and events. Twitter has become an important virtual venue where global users hold conversations, share information, and exchange news and research. This study investigates social network structures among Twitter users with regard to the Covid-19 outbreak at its onset and its spread. The data were derived from two Twitter datasets by using a search query, “coronavirus,” on February 28th, 2020, when the coronavirus outbreak was at a relatively early stage. The first dataset is a collection of tweets used in investigating social network structures and for visualization. The second dataset comprises tweets that have citations of scientific research publications regarding coronavirus. The collected data were analyzed to examine numerical indicators of the social network structures, subgroups, influencers, and features regarding research citations. This was also essential to measure the statistical relationships among social elements and research citations. The findings revealed that individuals tend to have conversations with specific people in clusters regarding daily issues on coronavirus without prominent or central voice tweeters. Tweets related to coronavirus were often associated with entertainment, politics, North Korea, and business. During their conversations, the users also responded to and mentioned the U.S. president, the World Health Organization (WHO), celebrities, and news channels. Meanwhile, people shared research articles about the outbreak, including its spread, symptoms related to the disease, and prevention strategies. These findings provide insight into the information sharing behaviors at the onset of the outbreak.

scholarly journals Cacophony or Empowerment? Analysing the Impact of New Information Communication Technologies and New Social Media in Southeast Asia

2011 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 3-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason P. Abbott
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Networking ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Communication ◽  
Protest Movements ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
New Information ◽  
The Impact

The capabilities, tools and websites we associate with new information communication technologies and social media are now ubiquitous. Moreover tools that were designed to facilitate innocuous conversation and social interaction have had unforeseen political impacts. Nowhere was this more visible than during the 2011 uprisings across the Arab World. From Tunis to Cairo, and Tripoli to Damascus protest movements against authoritarian rule openly utilized social networking and file sharing tools to publicize and organize demonstrations and to catalogue human rights abuses. The Arab Spring, or Jasmine Revolution, was an event that was both witnessed and played out in real time online. This article explores the impacts and effects of these technologies on regimes in East Asia, in particular exploring the extent to which they proffer new capabilities upon activists and reformers in the region's semi-democratic and authoritarian regimes. Drawing on data on Internet and smartphone use, as well as case studies that explore the role of these technologies on the 2008 and 2011 general elections in Malaysia and Singapore respectively, this article suggests that the Internet and social networking platforms do present unique opportunities for activists, citizens and social movements.

INFORMATION EXCHANGES OF SOCIAL MEDIA EVANGELISTS DURING FLOOD: A SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS

2016 ◽  
Vol 78 (9-3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdus-samad Temitope Olanrewaju ◽  
Rahayu Ahmad ◽  
Kamarul Faizal Hashim
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Social Network Analysis ◽  
Network Analysis ◽  
Network Structure ◽  
Information Dissemination ◽  
Network Structures ◽  
Analysis Technique ◽  
Types Of Information ◽  
Information Brokers

Information dissemination during disaster is very crucial, but inherits several complexities associated with the dynamic characteristics of the disaster. Social media evangelists (activists) play an important role in disseminating critical updates at on-site locations. However, there is limited understanding on the network structure formed and its evolution and the types of information shared. To address these questions, this study employs Social Network Analysis technique on a dataset containing 157 social media posts from an influential civilian fan page during Malaysia’s flood. The finding demonstrates three different network structures emerged during the flood period. The network structure evolves depending on the current state of the flood, the amount of information available and the need of information. Through content analysis, there were seven types of information exchanges discovered. These information exchanges evolved as the scale and magnitude of flood changes. In conclusion, this study shows the emergence of different network structures, density and identification of influential information brokers among civilians that use social media during disaster. Despite the low number of influential information brokers, they successfully manage their specific cluster in conveying information about the disaster and most importantly coordinating the rescue mission.

Muslim Television Preachers

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tuve Floden
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Arab World ◽  
The United States ◽  
Satellite Networks ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Social Media Platforms

Muslim television preachers, also called Muslim televangelists or media preachers, became popular with the rise of television, satellite networks, and the Internet. However, these individuals can trace their roots to earlier preachers who used newspapers, radio, and cassettes, as well as the phenomenon of popular storytellers from the medieval period. Today, Muslim television preachers are found worldwide, both inside and outside the Arab world, in countries such as Egypt, India, Indonesia, Kuwait, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United States, and more. Some of these preachers have traditional religious educations, with degrees from Al-Azhar or elsewhere, but many do not, instead holding degrees in subjects like business, accounting, or engineering. Like their counterparts from other religions, Muslim television preachers have also expanded beyond the realm of television and often spread their message through other means, such as seminars and lectures, book publications, websites, videos on YouTube, and social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Prominent examples of Muslim television preachers include Amr Khaled and Yusuf al-Qaradawi, as well as others like Muhammad al-Sha‘rawi and Moez Masoud of Egypt, Muhammad Hassan and Wagdi Ghoneim (Salafi preachers from Egypt), Javed Ahmad Ghamidi and Farhat Hashmi of Pakistan, Zakir Naik of India, Abdullah Gymnastiar (Aa Gym) and Arifin Ilham of Indonesia, Tareq al-Suwaidan of Kuwait, and Ahmad al-Shugairi of Saudi Arabia, to name a few.

scholarly journals Online Rebellion: Self-Organized Criticality of Contemporary Protest Movements

SAGE Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 215824402092335
Author(s):  
Dmitry Zhukov ◽  
Konstantin Kunavin ◽  
Sergey Lyamin
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Protest Movements ◽  
Self Organized ◽  
The Social ◽  
Self Organized Criticality ◽  
Mass Actions ◽  
Protest Activity

The theory of self-organized criticality (SOC) is applicable for explaining powerful surges of protest activity on social media. The objects of study were two protest clusters. The first was a set of Facebook groups that promoted the impeachment of the Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff. The second was a set of groups on the social network Vkontakte that provided support for anti-government rallies in Armenia, referred to as Electric Yerevan. Numerous groups in the examined clusters were functioning in SOC mode during certain periods. Those clusters were able to generate information avalanches—seemingly spontaneous, powerful surges of creation, transmission, and reproduction of information. The facts are presented that supported the assumptions that SOC effects in social networks are associated with mass actions on the streets, including violence. The observations of SOC make it possible to reveal certain periods when the course of a sociopolitical system is least stable.

scholarly journals Classifying Twitter Topic-Networks Using Social Network Analysis

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 205630511769154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Itai Himelboim ◽  
Marc A. Smith ◽  
Lee Rainie ◽  
Ben Shneiderman ◽  
Camila Espina
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Information Flow ◽  
Flow Characteristics ◽  
Classification Model ◽  
Network Structures ◽  
Hub And Spoke ◽  
Content Sharing ◽  
Social Media Network

As users interact via social media spaces, like Twitter, they form connections that emerge into complex social network structures. These connections are indicators of content sharing, and network structures reflect patterns of information flow. This article proposes a conceptual and practical model for the classification of topical Twitter networks, based on their network-level structures. As current literature focuses on the classification of users to key positions, this study utilizes the overall network structures in order to classify Twitter conversation based on their patterns of information flow. Four network-level metrics, which have established as indicators of information flow characteristics—density, modularity, centralization, and the fraction of isolated users—are utilized in a three-step classification model. This process led us to suggest six structures of information flow: divided, unified, fragmented, clustered, in and out hub-and-spoke networks. We demonstrate the value of these network structures by segmenting 60 Twitter topical social media network datasets into these six distinct patterns of collective connections, illustrating how different topics of conversations exhibit different patterns of information flow. We discuss conceptual and practical implications for each structure.

Tweeting #Ferguson: Mediatized fields and the new activist journalist

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (7) ◽  
pp. 2252-2271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen R Barnard
Keyword(s):  
Field Theory ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Network Analysis ◽  
Mixed Methods Approach ◽  
Twitter Users ◽  
Journalistic Field

As a hybrid, journo-activist space, tweeting #Ferguson quickly emerged as a way for activists and journalists to network and spread information. Using a mixed-methods approach combining digital ethnographic content analysis with social network analysis and link analysis, this study examines journalistic and activist uses of Twitter to identify changes in field relations and practices. Employing the lenses of field theory and mediatization, this study finds parity and divergence in the themes, frames, format, and discourse of journalist and activist Twitter practices. While the traditions of objective journalism and affective activism persist, notable exceptions occurred, especially following acts of police suppression. The networked communities of professional and activist Twitter users were overlapping and interactive, suggesting hybridity at the margins of the journalistic field. Given the hybridizing of journalistic and journo-activist practices, this case study examines the role of social media in efforts to report on and bolster social change.

scholarly journals Social network analysis of climate change discussion on Twitter during COP21

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brittany E. Harris
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Network Analysis ◽  
Social Media Platform ◽  
The Public ◽  
Climate Change Information ◽  
The Social ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
Twitter Users

The public is increasingly relying on Twitter for climate change information; however, to date, this social media platform is poorly understood in terms of how climate change information is shared. This study evaluates discussions on Twitter during the 2015 United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP21) to elucidate the social media platform’s role in communicating climate change information. For a five-day period, links embedded in a sample of tweets containing “#climatechange” were characterized, Twitter users were classified by the types of links they typically shared, and their degree centralities (the number of connections for each user) were measured. There was little skeptical content across all user categories; however, news links were more likely than non-news to contain content that is skeptical of climate change. Users who typically shared skeptical news links and users who typically shared non-skeptical non-news links exhibited a relatively high number of connections with other users.

scholarly journals Ekstraksi Knowledge tentang Penyebaran #Ratnamiliksiapa pada Jejaring Sosial (Twitter) menggunakan Social Network Analysis (SNA)

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 677
Author(s):  
Lyonly Tomasoa ◽  
Ade Iriani ◽  
Irwan Sembiring
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Communication Network ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Betweenness Centrality ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
The Political ◽  
Degree Centrality ◽  
Boundary Spanner ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Twitter Users

<p class="Abstrak">Memasuki tahun politik 2018-2019, Indonesia mengalami darurat <em>hoax</em>  dimana isu-isu politik menyebar dengan sangat cepat terutama pada jejaring sosial yang merupakan wadah untuk menghubungkan setiap individu di seluruh dunia. <em>Twitter</em> sebagai salah satu jejaring sosial yang sering dipakai masyarakat Indonesia, menyebabkan isu-isu politik pun ikut terbawa dalam bentuk tagar (#). Tagar #RatnaMilikSiapa yang merupakan isu politik dari kasus <em>hoax</em> kebohongan penganiayaan RS di kota Bandung dijadikan sebagai tunggangan para pengguna <em>twitter</em> untuk membangun opini di masyarakat sehinga menjadikan hal tersebut sebagai <em>hoax</em> menjelang pemilihan Presiden 2019. Opini-opini dari setiap pengguna <em>twitter</em> tersebut telah menciptakan jaringan-jaringan komunikasi yang membahas tentang kasus politik penganiyayaan RS dengan tagar #RatnaMilikSiapa . Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengidentifikasi aktivitas penyebaran tagar #RatnaMilikSiapa dengan menggunakan metode <em>Social Network Analyis</em> (SNA) pada jejaring sosial <em>twitter</em>. Dalam penelitian ini, dilakukan identifikasi terhadap aktor utama dengan melakukan perhitungan sentralitas tingkatan atau <em>degree Centrality </em>(BC) sehingga dapat ditemukan aktor yang berpengaruh dalam terbentuknya kelompok-kelompok jaringan <em>tweet</em> #RatnaMilikSiapa pada jejaring sosial <em>twitter</em>. Hasil dari penelitan ini adalah ditemukannya 3 aktor  kunci (<em>creator &amp; influencers</em>) yang berasal dari 5 aktor utama penyebaran <em>tweet </em> #RatnaMilikSiapa dengan mengidentifikasi adanya pertukaran berita yang dilakukan oleh para aktor utama dan didukung dengan perhitungan nilai sentralitas keperantaraan atau <em>betweenness Centrality </em>(BC). Kemudian juga ditemukannya 32 aktor <em>boundary spanner</em> yang merupakan dampak dari aktivitas pertukaran berita atau <em>information exchange</em>  yang dilakukan oleh aktor kunci pada jaringan komunikasi dalam jejaring sosial <em>twitter</em>.</p><p class="Abstrak"><em><strong>Abstract</strong></em></p><p class="Judul2"><em>Entering the political year of 2018-2019, Indonesia is facing a hoax crisis where political issues spread rapidly, especially on social media as a place for connecting people all over the world. Twitter as one of the popular social media, which is frequently used by the society of Indonesian, leads the political issues spread widely through the hashtag (#). </em><em> </em><em>#RatnaMilikSiapa which was a hoax case about RS persecution in Bandung turned as a way for Twitter users creating a judgment in the society so that that issue became a hoax approaching the Presidential Election of 2019. The opinions of Twitter users had created a communication network discussed RS persecution as a political issue with #RatnaMilikSiapa. </em><em> </em><em>This research intends to identify the #RatnaMilikSiapa deployment activity with the using of Social Network Analyis (SNA) method on Twitter. This research conducts the identification toward the main actors with degree Centrality (BC) calculation until the actor who influenced the establishment of #RatnaMilikSiapa tweet network groups on Twitter can be found. The results of this research are the researcher had found the three key actors (creator and influencers) which originated from 5 main actors who spread #RatnaMilikSiapa tweet. The researcher identifies the information exchange which had been done by the main actors and the results supports by the value of betweenness Centrality (BC) calculation. Later, the researcher had found 32 actors of boundary spanner which was the impact of information exchange done by the key actors on the communication network of Twitter.</em><em></em></p><p class="Abstrak"><em><strong><br /></strong></em></p>

Personal Networks

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernice Pescosolido ◽  
Edward B. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Social Network Analysis ◽  
Network Analysis ◽  
Social Inequality ◽  
Personal Networks ◽  
Personal Network ◽  
Protest Movements ◽  
Composition And Structure

Social networks are ubiquitous. The science of networks has shaped how researchers and society understand the spread of disease, the precursors of loneliness, the rise of protest movements, the causes of social inequality, the influence of social media, and much more. Egocentric analysis conceives of each individual, or ego, as embedded in a personal network of alters, a community partially of their creation and nearly unique to them, whose composition and structure have consequences. This volume is dedicated to understanding the history, present, and future of egocentric social network analysis. The text brings together the most important, classic articles foundational to the field with new perspectives to form a comprehensive volume ideal for courses in network analysis. The collection examines where the field of egocentric research has been, what it has uncovered, and where it is headed.

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