scholarly journals Detection of Induced Activity in Social Networks: Model and Methodology

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 297
Author(s):  
Dmitrii Gavra ◽  
Ksenia Namyatova ◽  
Lidia Vitkova
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Theoretical Background ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
Special Operations ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Project ◽  
Political Election

This paper examines the problem of social media special operations and especially induced support in social media during political election campaigns. The theoretical background of the paper is based on the study fake activity in social networks during pre-election processes and the existing models and methods of detection of such activity. The article proposes a methodology for identifying and diagnosing induced support for a political project. The methodology includes a model of induced activity, an algorithm for segmenting the audience of a political project, and a technique for detecting and diagnosing induced support. The proposed methodology provides identification of network combatants, participants of social media special operations, influencing public opinion in the interests of a political project. The methodology can be used to raise awareness of the electorate, the public, and civil society in general about the presence of artificial activity on the page of a political project.

scholarly journals #BLACKLIVESMATTER and struggle over national discourse on Twitter: digital activism as new public sphere

2021 ◽  
pp. 90-103
Author(s):  
Valeria Bondarenko ◽  
Olena Kaptiurova ◽  
Vira Orlova
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Theoretical Background ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Digital Activism ◽  
National Discourse ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere

The tragic death of George Floyd, an African-American male killed by a white policeman, has been widely discussed on social media and instigated many to use social media as an argumentum over the law enforcement role and the racist status quo in the USA. As social media have unignorably become a tool for activists who seek to introduce new voices into the present-day monoglossic public opinion, Twitter has offered the space for the Black Lives Matter digital activism to create their own identity that enables them to participate in (re)shaping the public opinion and aspire for social change. Social media, leaning on the technological thrust into modern society, have created a viable substitute for public sphere to challenge the power and hegemony which control the production of discourse and agenda that dominate the public opinion. The study draws on Habermas' theory of the 'public sphere' so as to conceptualize the #BalckLivesMatter (BLM) activism aimed at controlling the public national discourse. Critical Discourse Analysis, in its turn, provides the framework for critical examination of language choices and the ways in which texts are structured, selected, and invested with meanings that facilitate the promotion of certain ideologies and particular social representations. Using this theoretical background, the article explores language means used in Twitter messages (http://twitter.com) by BLM activists between May 25 and 31, 2020, in the aftermath of Floyd's death. The article reveals that #BlackLivesMatter tweets expose the discourse of inequality, injustice and racism across the American nation and that Twitter is used by the black minority marginalized in the American society as an alternative space to (re)construct the public sphere and to challenge the mainstream mass media dominated by the white ideology. The linguistic analysis uncovers the divisive nature of #BlackLivesMatter messages on Twitter expressed by the emphatic blacks vs whites opposition as well as their particularism that becomes pronounced in the debates of BLM activists with the universalist #AllLivesMatter supporters.

Sentiment Analysis as a Tool to Understand the Cultural Relationship between Consumer and Brand

2017 ◽  
pp. 202-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Capolupo ◽  
Gianpaolo Basile ◽  
Giancarlo Scozzese
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Web 2.0 ◽  
Sentiment Analysis ◽  
Product Launch ◽  
Consumer Sentiment ◽  
Specific Product ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Impact

One of the most relevant issues that companies, offices and marketing experts, sociologists and scholars must address studying a new brand or product launch is without any doubt the impact - in terms of feedback - on the consumer sentiment. The study of users' opinions on a specific product or brand has changed with the advent of Web 2.0, which has overcome the old surveys model leading consumers in a too complex and not genuine area, reaching more sophisticated research or even better tracking their opinions directly “on the field”, i.e. in the community where this exchange of views and information happens naturally and not artificially. The analysis of consumers' opinions on social media provides enormous opportunities for the public and the private spheres. Concerning the last on the reputation of a certain product/brand or firm is strongly influenced by the voices and negative opinions published and shared by users on social networks. Indeed, companies need to adapt their behaviour monitoring public opinion.

Fake News im Wahlkampf

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Flint
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Forming Process ◽  
Private Companies ◽  
The Future

The urgency of regulating fake news on social networks regarding election campaigns is more evident than ever. This poses considerable difficulties for legislative practice. It is important to consider the fundamental rights of the parties involved without the state's influence on the formation of public opinion becoming too great. The current options of reacting to fake news do not suffice to ensure a free opinion-forming process. This publication makes an innovative proposal as to how social networks – especially Facebook – can be regulated in the future in such a way that the discourse is strengthened and the alarming influence of private companies on the formation of opinion is limited.

Profiling the Users of High Influence on Social Media in the Context of Public Events

2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 36-49
Author(s):  
Lu An ◽  
Junyang Hu ◽  
Manting Xu ◽  
Gang Li ◽  
Chuanming Yu
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Emergency Management ◽  
Emotional Support ◽  
Opinion Leader ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Events ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Influential Users

The highly influential users on social media platforms may lead the public opinion about public events and have positive or negative effects on the later evolution of events. Identifying highly influential users on social media is of great significance for the management of public opinion in the context of public events. In this study, the highly influential users of social media are divided into three types (i.e., topic initiator, opinion leader, and opinion reverser). A method of profiling highly influential users is proposed based on topic consistency and emotional support. The event of “Jiankui He Editing the Infants' Genes” was investigated. The three types of users were identified, and their opinion differences and dynamic evolution were revealed. The comprehensive profiles of highly influential users were constructed. The findings can help emergency management departments master the focus of attention and emotional attitudes of the key users and provide the method and data support for opinion management and decision-making of public events.

scholarly journals Preliminary Qualitative Analysis and Implications of Wood Products Perception on Social Media

2020 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-300
Author(s):  
Jana Šujanová ◽  
Renata Nováková ◽  
Gabriela Pavlendová ◽  
Dagmar Cagáňová ◽  
Natália Canet
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Automotive Industry ◽  
Wood Products ◽  
Furniture Industry ◽  
Current Management ◽  
University Of Technology

The article presents the results of the qualitative research of social media, managed by the Institute of the Civil Society, University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, in cooperation with the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava. The research aimed to analyse different areas of the current management challenges and their perception of the selected social networks. The study concentrates on the presentation of the chosen manufacturers of the automotive industry and furniture industry on social media. The content analysis was based on the VADER (Valence Aware Dictionary and Entiment Reasoner) lexicon that was explicitly tuned to sentiments expressed in social media and QDA software.

One of Many Tools to Win the Election

2016 ◽  
pp. 210-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashik Shafi ◽  
Fred Vultee
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Agenda Building ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
Presidential Candidates ◽  
The Public ◽  
Virtual Presence ◽  
Us Presidential Election

Presidential campaigns today are increasingly integrating social media such as Facebook as an efficient tool to communicate with the public and organize their supporters. In a bid to explore how the Facebook is used by the politicians during election campaigns, this chapter explored official Facebook posts by two presidential candidates ahead of the 2012 US presidential election. The findings suggest Facebook was used in the campaign as a platform to organize like-minded voters, and reporting a virtual presence to the voters. Facebook was used strategically to resonate with the real-life campaign, and disseminate instant messages, rather than engaging in discussion with the public. The two candidates had only minor difference in the characteristics of their Facebook contents. The implication of the research for the online political agenda-building tactics is discussed.

scholarly journals Human Sentiment and Activity Recognition in Disaster Situations Using Social Media Images Based on Deep Learning

Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (24) ◽  
pp. 7115
Author(s):  
Amin Muhammad Sadiq ◽  
Huynsik Ahn ◽  
Young Bok Choi
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Activity Analysis ◽  
Physical Activities ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Crowd Sourcing ◽  
Emergency Relief ◽  
The Public ◽  
Text Streams

A rapidly increasing growth of social networks and the propensity of users to communicate their physical activities, thoughts, expressions, and viewpoints in text, visual, and audio material have opened up new possibilities and opportunities in sentiment and activity analysis. Although sentiment and activity analysis of text streams has been extensively studied in the literature, it is relatively recent yet challenging to evaluate sentiment and physical activities together from visuals such as photographs and videos. This paper emphasizes human sentiment in a socially crucial field, namely social media disaster/catastrophe analysis, with associated physical activity analysis. We suggest multi-tagging sentiment and associated activity analyzer fused with a a deep human count tracker, a pragmatic technique for multiple object tracking, and count in occluded circumstances with a reduced number of identity switches in disaster-related videos and images. A crowd-sourcing study has been conducted to analyze and annotate human activity and sentiments towards natural disasters and related images in social networks. The crowdsourcing study outcome into a large-scale benchmark dataset with three annotations sets each resolves distinct tasks. The presented analysis and dataset will anchor a baseline for future research in the domain. We believe that the proposed system will contribute to more viable communities by benefiting different stakeholders, such as news broadcasters, emergency relief organizations, and the public in general.

Multidimensional influencing factors of public opinion information dissemination in social media: Evidence from Weibo dataset

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (31) ◽  
pp. 1950375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guanghui Wang ◽  
Yufei Wang ◽  
Kaidi Liu ◽  
Jimei Li
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Information Content ◽  
Influencing Factors ◽  
Network Structure ◽  
Information Dissemination ◽  
Influential Factors ◽  
Channel Network ◽  
The Public ◽  
Information Characteristics

The factors influencing the dissemination of public opinion on social media, the main carrier of public opinion, are diverse, complex and changeable. Existing studies of influential factors of public opinion dissemination focus on the information itself and information sources in the dissemination process, failing to consider the comprehensive influence of multidimensional factors, such as information content, sources and channels. This study takes the identification of multidimensional influential factors of social media information dissemination as the research object and comprehensively sorts out the influencing factors of public opinion. To improve the scientific basis and accuracy of the research, multidimensional factors, including information characteristics, dissemination network structure and user-level attributes, are selected to analyze the effect of influential factors in different dimensions on the dissemination of social media public opinion information using econometric models. Three main conclusions of this paper are as follows: (1) The traditional information characteristics (information content) and information source attributes (user-level factor) are not the only key factors affecting information dissemination, while the information channel (network structure) is worth more consideration. (2) Netizens tend to pay more attention to the psychological and emotional attributes of information when forwarding public opinions. The communication mode in which offline social elites enlighten the public no longer exists; whether a user is a network celebrity or lives in the central area no longer significantly affects public opinion dissemination. (3) The higher the total amount of information users release, the more the information would interfere with the public opinion. This is mainly because users with a higher level of activity may release more invalid information about advertising that has nothing to do with public opinion events.

scholarly journals Can online exemplars trigger a spiral of silence? Examining the effects of exemplar opinions on perceptions of public opinion and speaking out

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (7) ◽  
pp. 1034-1051 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Zerback ◽  
Nayla Fawzi
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Spiral Of Silence ◽  
The Public ◽  
Speaking Out ◽  
Modern Media ◽  
Media Environments ◽  
The Public Sphere

In modern media environments, social media have fundamentally altered the way how individual opinions find their way into the public sphere. We link spiral of silence theory to exemplification research and investigate the effects of online opinions on peoples’ perceptions of public opinion and willingness to speak out. In an experiment, we can show that a relatively low number of online exemplars considerably influence perceived public support for the eviction of violent immigrants. Moreover, supporters of eviction were less willing to speak out on the issue online and offline when confronted with exemplars contradicting their opinion.

scholarly journals Social networks as an instrument of PSYOP in foreign policy: challenge for the national security

2021 ◽  
pp. 10-28
Author(s):  
Oleg Igorevich Odnoral
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
National Security ◽  
Political Realism ◽  
Online Platform ◽  
Scientific Analysis ◽  
Golden Shield Project

The object of this research is the process of creating political discourse, setting the “agenda” via social media as foreign policy instrument and a threat to national security of the country. The article explores the role of the online platform in shaping public opinion and discourse in political interests. The subject of this research is the social media (social networks, video and image hosting services, blogs, etc.) Particular attention is given to structurization of the concept of social media, social networks as the instruments that form social reality and affect public opinion. Emphasis is placed on the technical aspects of the types of social networks, control, thereof. Comparative analysis is conducted on the practice of using Internet resources in China, and experience of creating the Golden Shield Project. The scientific novelty of consists in the cross-scientific analysis on the basis of the interpretive pattern of social constructionism, what distinguishes this work from the vast majority of similar research of dedicated to the use of social media as an instrument of political technologies and PSYOP. Being a cross-scientific analysis at the intersection of IT (information technology), international relations (political science), and social psychology, the study leans on the theoretical concepts of political realism and neorealism, psychological constructivism and behavioral psychology. The author underlines the importance of comprehensive approach towards leveling the potential threats of using social media as an instrument of PSYOP. First and foremost, it pertains to the development of a coherent all-encompassing system with ideological and value foundation for creating the discourse. The article describes the relevant approaches towards the “sovereign Internet"; carries out comparative analysis of the Chinese experience and Russian ineffective initiatives, such as blocking separately resources, shortage of public-private partnership in the IT sector (by analogy with the extremely successful experience of China in this sphere). The author offers a general frame of possible steps on ensuring national security in the online platform of social media.

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