Satirical News Detection and Analysis using Attention Mechanism and Linguistic Features

Satirical news is considered to be entertainment, but it is potentially deceptive and harmful. Despite the embedded genre in the article, not everyone can recognize the satirical cues and therefore believe the news as true news. We observe that satirical cues are often reflected in certain paragraphs rather than the whole document. Existing works only consider document-level features to detect the satire, which could be limited. We consider paragraph-level linguistic features to unveil the satire by incorporating neural network and attention mechanism. We investigate the difference between paragraph-level features and document-level features, and analyze them on a large satirical news dataset. The evaluation shows that the proposed model detects satirical news effectively and reveals what features are important at which level.Comment: EMNLP 2017, 11 page

The Impact of Psycholinguistic Patterns in Discriminating between Fake News Spreaders and Fact Checkers

[EN] Fake news is a threat to society. A huge amount of fake news is posted every day on social networks which is read, believed and sometimes shared by a number of users. On the other hand, with the aim to raise awareness, some users share posts that debunk fake news by using information from fact-checking websites. In this paper, we are interested in exploring the role of various psycholinguistic characteristics in differentiating between users that tend to share fake news and users that tend to debunk them. Psycholinguistic characteristics represent the different linguistic information that can be used to profile users and can be extracted or inferred from users¿ posts. We present the CheckerOrSpreader model that uses a Convolution Neural Network (CNN) to differentiate between spreaders and checkers of fake news. The experimental results showed that CheckerOrSpreader is effective in classifying a user as a potential spreader or checker. Our analysis showed that checkers tend to use more positive language and a higher number of terms that show causality compared to spreaders who tend to use a higher amount of informal language, including slang and swear words.The works of Anastasia Giachanou and Daniel Oberski were funded by the Dutch Research Council (grant VI.Vidi.195.152). The work of Paolo Rosso was in the framework of the XAI-DisInfodemics project on eXplainable AI for disinformation and conspiracy detection during infodemics (PLEC2021-007681), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, as well as IBERIFIER, the Iberian Digital Media Research and Fact-Checking Hub funded by the European Digital Media Observatory (2020-EU-IA0252).Giachanou, A.; Ghanem, BHH.; Rissola, EA.; Rosso, P.; Crestani, F.; Oberski, D. (2022). The Impact of Psycholinguistic Patterns in Discriminating between Fake News Spreaders and Fact Checkers. Data & Knowledge Engineering. 138:1-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.datak.2021.10196011513

Figurative Language Detection using Deep Learning and Contextual Features

The size of data shared over the Internet today is gigantic. A big bulk of it comes from postings on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Some of it also comes from online news sites such as CNN and The Onion. This type of data is very good for data analysis since they are very personalized and specific. For years, researchers in academia and various industries have been analyzing this type of data. The purpose includes product marketing, event monitoring, and trend analysis. The highest usage for this type of analysis is to find out the sentiments of the public about a certain topic or product. This field is called sentiment analysis. The writers of such posts have no obligation to stick to only literal language. They also have the freedom to use figurative language in their publications. Hence, online posts can be categorized into two: Literal and Figurative. Literal posts contain words or sentences that are direct or straight to the point. On the contrary, figurative posts contain words, phrases, or sentences that carry different meanings than usual. This could flip the whole polarity of a given post. Due to this nature, it can jeopardize sentiment analysis works that focus primarily on the polarity of the posts. This makes figurative language one of the biggest problems in sentiment analysis. Hence, detecting it would be crucial and significant. However, the study of figurative language detection is non-trivial. There have been many existing works that tried to execute the task of detecting figurative language correctly, with different methodologies used. The results are impressive but still can be improved. This thesis offers a new way to solve this problem. There are essentially seven commonly used figurative language categories: sarcasm, metaphor, satire, irony, simile, humor, and hyperbole. This thesis focuses on three categories. The thesis aims to understand the contextual meaning behind the three figurative language categories, using a combination of deep learning architecture with manually extracted features and explore the use of well know machine learning classifiers for the detection tasks. In the process, it also aims to describe a descending list of features according to the importance. The deep learning architecture used in this work is Convolutional Neural Network, which is combined with manually extracted features that are carefully chosen based on the literature and understanding of each figurative language. The findings of this work clearly showed improvement in the evaluation metrics when compared to existing works in the same domain. This happens in all of the figurative language categories, proving the framework’s possession of quality

On the Detection of False Information: From Rumors to Fake News

Tesis por compendio[ES] En tiempos recientes, el desarrollo de las redes sociales y de las agencias de noticias han traído nuevos retos y amenazas a la web. Estas amenazas han llamado la atención de la comunidad investigadora en Procesamiento del Lenguaje Natural (PLN) ya que están contaminando las plataformas de redes sociales. Un ejemplo de amenaza serían las noticias falsas, en las que los usuarios difunden y comparten información falsa, inexacta o engañosa. La información falsa no se limita a la información verificable, sino que también incluye información que se utiliza con fines nocivos. Además, uno de los desafíos a los que se enfrentan los investigadores es la gran cantidad de usuarios en las plataformas de redes sociales, donde detectar a los difusores de información falsa no es tarea fácil. Los trabajos previos que se han propuesto para limitar o estudiar el tema de la detección de información falsa se han centrado en comprender el lenguaje de la información falsa desde una perspectiva lingüística. En el caso de información verificable, estos enfoques se han propuesto en un entorno monolingüe. Además, apenas se ha investigado la detección de las fuentes o los difusores de información falsa en las redes sociales. En esta tesis estudiamos la información falsa desde varias perspectivas. En primer lugar, dado que los trabajos anteriores se centraron en el estudio de la información falsa en un entorno monolingüe, en esta tesis estudiamos la información falsa en un entorno multilingüe. Proponemos diferentes enfoques multilingües y los comparamos con un conjunto de baselines monolingües. Además, proporcionamos estudios sistemáticos para los resultados de la evaluación de nuestros enfoques para una mejor comprensión. En segundo lugar, hemos notado que el papel de la información afectiva no se ha investigado en profundidad. Por lo tanto, la segunda parte de nuestro trabajo de investigación estudia el papel de la información afectiva en la información falsa y muestra cómo los autores de contenido falso la emplean para manipular al lector. Aquí, investigamos varios tipos de información falsa para comprender la correlación entre la información afectiva y cada tipo (Propaganda, Trucos / Engaños, Clickbait y Sátira). Por último, aunque no menos importante, en un intento de limitar su propagación, también abordamos el problema de los difusores de información falsa en las redes sociales. En esta dirección de la investigación, nos enfocamos en explotar varias características basadas en texto extraídas de los mensajes de perfiles en línea de tales difusores. Estudiamos diferentes conjuntos de características que pueden tener el potencial de ayudar a discriminar entre difusores de información falsa y verificadores de hechos.[CA] En temps recents, el desenvolupament de les xarxes socials i de les agències de notícies han portat nous reptes i amenaces a la web. Aquestes amenaces han cridat l'atenció de la comunitat investigadora en Processament de Llenguatge Natural (PLN) ja que estan contaminant les plataformes de xarxes socials. Un exemple d'amenaça serien les notícies falses, en què els usuaris difonen i comparteixen informació falsa, inexacta o enganyosa. La informació falsa no es limita a la informació verificable, sinó que també inclou informació que s'utilitza amb fins nocius. A més, un dels desafiaments als quals s'enfronten els investigadors és la gran quantitat d'usuaris en les plataformes de xarxes socials, on detectar els difusors d'informació falsa no és tasca fàcil. Els treballs previs que s'han proposat per limitar o estudiar el tema de la detecció d'informació falsa s'han centrat en comprendre el llenguatge de la informació falsa des d'una perspectiva lingüística. En el cas d'informació verificable, aquests enfocaments s'han proposat en un entorn monolingüe. A més, gairebé no s'ha investigat la detecció de les fonts o els difusors d'informació falsa a les xarxes socials. En aquesta tesi estudiem la informació falsa des de diverses perspectives. En primer lloc, atès que els treballs anteriors es van centrar en l'estudi de la informació falsa en un entorn monolingüe, en aquesta tesi estudiem la informació falsa en un entorn multilingüe. Proposem diferents enfocaments multilingües i els comparem amb un conjunt de baselines monolingües. A més, proporcionem estudis sistemàtics per als resultats de l'avaluació dels nostres enfocaments per a una millor comprensió. En segon lloc, hem notat que el paper de la informació afectiva no s'ha investigat en profunditat. Per tant, la segona part del nostre treball de recerca estudia el paper de la informació afectiva en la informació falsa i mostra com els autors de contingut fals l'empren per manipular el lector. Aquí, investiguem diversos tipus d'informació falsa per comprendre la correlació entre la informació afectiva i cada tipus (Propaganda, Trucs / Enganys, Clickbait i Sàtira). Finalment, però no menys important, en un intent de limitar la seva propagació, també abordem el problema dels difusors d'informació falsa a les xarxes socials. En aquesta direcció de la investigació, ens enfoquem en explotar diverses característiques basades en text extretes dels missatges de perfils en línia de tals difusors. Estudiem diferents conjunts de característiques que poden tenir el potencial d'ajudar a discriminar entre difusors d'informació falsa i verificadors de fets.[EN] In the recent years, the development of social media and online news agencies has brought several challenges and threats to the Web. These threats have taken the attention of the Natural Language Processing (NLP) research community as they are polluting the online social media platforms. One of the examples of these threats is false information, in which false, inaccurate, or deceptive information is spread and shared by online users. False information is not limited to verifiable information, but it also involves information that is used for harmful purposes. Also, one of the challenges that researchers have to face is the massive number of users in social media platforms, where detecting false information spreaders is not an easy job. Previous work that has been proposed for limiting or studying the issue of detecting false information has focused on understanding the language of false information from a linguistic perspective. In the case of verifiable information, approaches have been proposed in a monolingual setting. Moreover, detecting the sources or the spreaders of false information in social media has not been investigated much. In this thesis we study false information from several aspects. First, since previous work focused on studying false information in a monolingual setting, in this thesis we study false information in a cross-lingual one. We propose different cross-lingual approaches and we compare them to a set of monolingual baselines. Also, we provide systematic studies for the evaluation results of our approaches for better understanding. Second, we noticed that the role of affective information was not investigated in depth. Therefore, the second part of our research work studies the role of the affective information in false information and shows how the authors of false content use it to manipulate the reader. Here, we investigate several types of false information to understand the correlation between affective information and each type (Propaganda, Hoax, Clickbait, Rumor, and Satire). Last but not least, in an attempt to limit its spread, we also address the problem of detecting false information spreaders in social media. In this research direction, we focus on exploiting several text-based features extracted from the online profile messages of those spreaders. We study different feature sets that can have the potential to help to identify false information spreaders from fact checkers.Ghanem, BHH. (2020). On the Detection of False Information: From Rumors to Fake News [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/158570TESISCompendi

Profiling Cryptocurrency Influencers with Few-Shot Learning Using Data Augmentation and ELECTRA

With this work we propose an application of the ELECTRA Transformer, fine-tuned on two augmented version of the same training dataset. Our team developed the novel framework for taking part at the Profiling Cryptocurrency Influencers with Few-shot Learning task hosted at PAN@CLEF2023. Our proposed strategy consists of an early data augmentation stage followed by a fine-tuning of ELECTRA. At the first stage we augment the original training dataset provided by the organizers using backtranslation. Using this augmented version of the training dataset, we perform a fine tuning of ELECTRA. Finally, using the fine-tuned version of ELECTRA, we inference the labels of the samples provided in the test set. To develop and test our model we used a two-ways validation on the training set. Firstly, we evaluate all the metrics on the augmented training set, and then we evaluate on the original training set. The metrics we considered span from accuracy to Macro F1, to Micro F1, to Recall and Precision. According to the official evaluator, our best submission reached a Macro F1 value equal to 0.3762