From the Fringe to the Fore: An Algorithmic Ethnography of the Far-Right Conspiracy Theory Group QAnon

2021 ◽  
pp. 089124162110405
Author(s):  
Peter L. Forberg
Keyword(s):  
Research Methods ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Conspiracy Theory ◽  
Far Right ◽  
User Experiences ◽  
Technological Processes ◽  
Echo Chambers

In this article, I examine the convergence of the socio-technological processes that enabled members of far-right conspiracy theory QAnon to expand beyond the “echo chambers” of the online fringe and incorporate themselves into mainstream discourse. Drawing on interdisciplinary research methods to focus on how technology is used in practice, I analyze QAnon’s online life through the concepts of algorithms, user experiences, and routines. I argue that QAnon followers’ deliberate manipulation of and incidental capitalization on algorithms gives QAnon’s content momentum that spreads information across communities; that the affordances of the user experiences of different platforms allow QAnons to curate a variety of strategies for growing their ideas and audience; and that the integration of QAnon participation into personal routines helps move the theory offline. Ultimately, a ground-up approach to digital socialization adds complexity to the analysis of echo chambers and algorithmic power.

scholarly journals nr="13"Interdisciplinary Research Methods: Considering the Potential of Community-based Participatory Research in Translation

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-26
Author(s):  
LYNNE BOWKER
Keyword(s):  
Research Methods ◽  
Participatory Research ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Community Based Participatory Research ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Research Traditions ◽  
Related Research ◽  
Potential Barriers ◽  
Health Field ◽  
Population And Public Health

Abstract Different disciplines have different research traditions, including the use of discipline-specific research methods. However, adopting methods from other disciplines can provide fresh perspectives and lead to new insights. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) originated in the population and public health field, but it has potential to be applied in a broader range of disciplines. This article explains the fundamental characteristics of CBPR, explores some misconceptions associated with this method, and describes some potential barriers to its application. Finally, using the example of a machine translation literacy project, the article walks readers through this example of how CBPR was applied to a translation- related research project and evaluates the success of this method for the project.

Using compatibility charts to optimize research into fire retardants

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 40-49
Author(s):  
T. Yu. Eremina ◽  
D. A. Korolchenko ◽  
F. A. Portnov
Keyword(s):  
Research Methods ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Assessment Method ◽  
Material Research ◽  
Fire Retardants ◽  
Interdisciplinary Methods

Introduction. Interdisciplinary research is a most relevant issue in science and education. The integration of intellectual resources with research and production infrastructure is acknowledged as the main goal of interdisciplinary research in the international practice. The main (analytical) part. The authors propose the following methodological approach to the study, based on the distribution of interdisciplinary methods into groups by the scale of the research subject (material). In this case, the studies have the following levels: microlevel, supramolecular level, material research, design research. The paper presents research methods used at each of these levels. The co-authors propose to optimize the study of performance characteristics of building materials and fire retardants through the use of a compatibility chart with regard for the study levels and the analysis of methods of experimental research at each level. Using a compatibility chart. The methodology of the study. A research into the fire retardant efficiency of esters of phosphoric acid, used to modify wood, was selected as a practical example for compatibility diagrams. The project encompasses a number of methods applicable to compatibility charts: the method of elemental analysis, the Gibbs energy assessment method, the sample surface assessment method, the electron microscopy method, methods of assessing fire-hazardous characteristics of wood, the water sorption method, strength and biosecurity assessment methods. Conclusions. The co-authors first proposed an algorithm for generalizing the empirical data on mechanochemical characteristics of materials using interdisciplinary methods in the form of a compatibility chart. This methodology optimizes research into any composite materials though it preserves targeted research methods and eliminates impractical and concomitant experimental studies, thus, reducing labour costs and environmental impacts.

scholarly journals Going viral: How a single tweet spawned a COVID-19 conspiracy theory on Twitter

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 205395172093840 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anatoliy Gruzd ◽  
Philip Mai
Keyword(s):  
Conspiracy Theory ◽  
Secondary Wave ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Public Health Agencies ◽  
Health Agencies ◽  
Fact Checking ◽  
Twitter Users ◽  
The U.S

In late March of 2020, a new hashtag, #FilmYourHospital, made its first appearance on social media. The hashtag encouraged people to visit local hospitals to take pictures and videos of empty hospitals to help “prove” that the COVID-19 pandemic is an elaborate hoax. Using techniques from Social Network Analysis, this case study examines how this conspiracy theory propagated on Twitter and whether the hashtag virality was aided by the use of automation or coordination among Twitter users. We found that while much of the content came from users with limited reach, the oxygen that fueled this conspiracy in its early days came from a handful of prominent conservative politicians and far right political activists on Twitter. These power users used this hashtag to build awareness about the campaign and to encourage their followers to break quarantine and film what is happening at their local hospitals. After the initial boost by a few prominent accounts, the campaign was mostly sustained by pro-Trump accounts, followed by a secondary wave of propagation outside the U.S. The rise of the #FilmYourHospital conspiracy from a single tweet demonstrates the ongoing challenge of addressing false, viral information during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the spread of misinformation can be potentially mitigated by fact-checking and directing people to credible sources of information from public health agencies, false and misleading claims that are driven by politics and supported by strong convictions and not science are much harder to root out.

Kryzysy w procesie integracji europejskiej i sposoby ich przezwyciężania –wprowadzenie do problematyki badań

2014 ◽  
pp. 8-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konstanty A. Wojtaszczyk ◽  
Jadwiga Nadolska ◽  
Jarosław F. Czub
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Integration Process ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research Project ◽  
Legitimacy Crisis ◽  
The Eu

The article presents the assumptions of the interdisciplinary research project, whose object of analysis are crises in the European integration process. The project distinguishes 12 planes of analysis of the crises, revealing their different aspects (crises in the integration process from a theoretical perspective, crises in the process of European integration from a historical perspective, axiological crisis, crisis of legitimacy, crisis of the model of democracy in Europe, crisis of the modernisation of the EU, financial and economic crisis, social crisis, structural crisis, crisis of communication, Poland and the crises in the EU, EU in the international arena during crisis). The article discusses the objectives and research hypothesis, significance of the project and the expected results of the project. For each module of the project, theories explaining the origin, nature, consequences and ways of overcoming the crisis phenomena were distinguished and the research methods by which research goals are planned to be achieved were specified.

Design Methods for Experience Design

2009 ◽  
pp. 432-447
Author(s):  
Marie Jefsioutine ◽  
John Knight
Keyword(s):  
Research Methods ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Web Sites ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Web Design ◽  
Design Development ◽  
Experience Design ◽  
User Experiences ◽  
Site Use ◽  
The Web

The following chapter describes an approach to Web design and evaluation where the user experience is central. It outlines the historical context in which experience design has evolved and describes the authors’ experience design framework (EDF). This is based on the principles of user-centred design (UCD) and draws on a variety of research methods and tools to facilitate the design, development, and evaluation of user experiences. It proposes that to design usable, accessible, engaging, and beneficial Web sites, effort needs to focus on visceral, behavioural, reflective, and social factors, while considering contexts such as the who and why; what and how; when and where; and with what of Web site use. Research methods from a variety of disciplines are used to support exploration, communication, empathy, and speculation. Examples of the application of the EDF, to various stages of the Web design process, are described.

“Who should we hate today?”: Notes from an illiberal laboratory

Maska ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (201-202) ◽  
pp. 148-157
Author(s):  
Zsolt Miklósvölgyi ◽  
Márió Z. Nemes
Keyword(s):  
Outer Space ◽  
Conspiracy Theory ◽  
Star System ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Alternative Concept ◽  
The Core ◽  
Minority Identity ◽  
Slavoj Žižek ◽  
Counter Narrative ◽  
The World

Similarly to other ethnofuturistic movements (e.g. Afrofuturism, Blaccelerationism, Sinofuturism, Gulf-Futurism, Baltic Ethnofuturism) Hungarofuturism is an experiment in identity-poetical imagination, based on a radically ironic exaggeration of minority identity. As opposed to notions of Hungarianness currently hegemonic in Hungary, this is an alternative concept of what it means to be Hungarian, the discovery of a post-Hungarianism. The Hungarofuturist reprogramming of the hegemonic “nation-machine” does not create organic knowledge and narratives, but anachronisms, phantom-like events in which the incompatibility of the various elements hybridizes history and the cosmos until the very moment of “overidentification” (Slavoj Žižek). One of the primary examples of Hungarofuturist “overidentification” is best demonstrated in the example of hijacking and appropriating the most common pseudo-myth of the esoteric subcultures of the Hungarian far-right: Hungarians—as the so-called “chosen ones”—originating from outer space, namely from the Sirius star system. One of the primary aims of this article is to decipher, hijack, and deweaponize the core of this conspiracy theory, thus demonstrating how Hungarofuturist’s ways of (counter-) narrative-making are capable of deconstructing the phantoms of 1 This essay is partially based on our following previous texts: “Hungarofuturist Manifesto”, in Technologie und das Unheimliche, 2017; “Terraforming PostHungarianness”, WUK, 2020; “Parapolitik der Außerirdischen Interessen”, Kunst und Kirche, 2021. ethnographic authenticity promoted not only by FIDESZ, but by contemporary nationalist political agendas all over the world.

Research Methods of Making Glass and its Physico-Chemical Properties

2019 ◽  
Vol 968 ◽  
pp. 168-175
Author(s):  
Lilia I. Baranova-Shishkova ◽  
Karina S. Simpolskaya ◽  
Elena Zvonareva ◽  
Vladimir V. Goncharenko
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Wide Spectrum ◽  
Chemical Properties ◽  
Technological Processes ◽  
Silicate Formation ◽  
Glass Forming ◽  
Physico Chemical ◽  
Modern Methods

This article discusses the modern methods of physico-chemical properties of glass manufacturing, through the use of a wide spectrum of glass-forming. Description of the implementation of the staged methods of chemical-technological processes of silicate formation, implying the lowest energy consumption, in connection with the transition to the processing of secondary raw materials.

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