#reformjo: Jordanian Tweets for Social Reform

What can be said in 140 characters or less? During what has been dubbed the “Arab Spring”, Twitter has been heralded as the catalyst that sparked revolutions. Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Bahrain and others have utilized this microblogging site to express opinions, share links, and inform the world what is happening. In the past few months, the number of Jordanians on Twitter has risen sharply. During the course of my research, I aimed to discover if there were “elite users”, people whose opinions had more weight or significance in this dialogue as the Twitter community tends to develop with a distinct hierarchy of leaders and followers. Interviews combined with focus groups were used to first gain a general impression of the current dialogue then to obtain an in-depth, nuanced view. My findings indicate in Jordan, the newness of the medium is hindering the community on Twitter that is actively seeking change through a tweet dialogue. Jordan does not have a precedent or diversified base to build upon for Twitter to play a tangible role in reformation at this current time. In addition, Jordanian college-aged students whom many herald as the drivers of social change are not using Twitter. The platform of Twitter users needs to expand to include more of the population for a fruitful discussion of social change to incur. While 140 characters themselves cannot reform a society, those proclaiming the message can take strides

The Importance of Poverty in Sustainability Policies: An Approach to Understanding Online Opinion

Twitter data related to poverty and basic income was collected for 24 days in 2019, and then was cleaned and prepared for natural language processing. A 7 % subset of the data was manually labeled for sentiment analysis in order to inform the artificial intelligence (AI), which was trained and verified on this subset. We present the results for both the 7 % verification sample and the entire database. This analysis of public opinion on poverty is situated within the Sustainable Development Goals and the support for poverty reduction policies.Los datos de Twitter relacionados con la pobreza y los ingresos básicos se reco pilaron durante 24 días en el 2019, se limpiaron y se prepararon para el procesamiento del lenguaje natural (natural language processing). Un subconjunto del 7 % de los datos se etiquetó manualmente para el análisis de sentimientos con el fin de informar a la inteligencia artificial (IA). La IA fue entrenada y verificada en este subconjunto. Presentamos los resultados tanto de la muestra del 7 % como de toda la base de datos. Este análisis de la opinión pública sobre la pobreza se sitúa dentro de los objetivos de desarrollo sostenible y el apoyo a las políticas de reducción de la pobreza

Anatomy of a Social Media Movement: Diffusion, Sentiment and Network Analysis

Social media has increased the availability of abundant user interaction data. Technology-mediated social participation tools like Twitter can inform us about collective actions and social movement mobilization. Current focus of social media and social movement research are on usage and impact of technology during historical uprisings. But online social networks are participatory mediums, and filled up with multi-dimensional user interactions, which requires more concrete attentions and need investigations at granular levels. Moreover, limited attention has been paid on how activists develop online social networks. This study stressed on Twitter’s ability of helping in making sense of online debates and present meaningful descriptions about social events. It focused on a specific social media movement and investigated on what were protesters’ behaviors and opinions on Twitter, the structures of their online networks, leadership roles, and information diffusion patterns. This study took mixed methods approach with combination of sentiment analysis, content analysis, social network analysis, and time series analysis. During the social movement, people’s sentiment took a range of emotional levels including anger, anticipation, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, surprise, and trust. Their opinions expressed political biasness. The study revealed that protesters broadcast information worldwide, and during digital activism they formed leaderships even on Twitter’s horizontal structural platform. Twitter activists exposed a long-tail information sharing culture. Strong-ties formed small-world network while weak-ties stayed on peripheries

Trump: Victim or Executioner? : Analysis of the Witch Hunt from the Perspective of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and the U.S. President Donald Trump.

Las cazas de brujas han existido desde el siglo XVII, sin embargo, el término debe su popularidad a las cazas de brujas que tuvieron lugar en Salem, Massachusetts y, no ha sido hasta tres siglos más tarde, cuando el término caza de brujas ha comenzado a ser utilizado con una connotación política. El principal objetivo de este estudio es analizar el uso que se le ha dado al término caza de brujas a lo largo de la historia. Éste ha sido utilizado por diversas figuras como el autor Arthur Miller, quien lo utilizó para representar las persecuciones que estaban teniendo lugar en los Estados Unidos durante los años 50, y hasta por el actual presidente del país, Donald Trump, quien se ha apropiado del término para acusar a aquellos que, a través de una investigación sobre su supuesta colaboración con Rusia en las elecciones de 2016, intentan derrocarlo. Además, el estudio también profundiza en las diferentes opiniones que han surgido a partir del uso del término caza de brujas por parte del presidente. Los seguidores de Donald Trump defienden al presidente alegando y ofreciendo pruebas de que todas las evidencias proporcionadas tras la investigación son falsas. Para muchos críticos, Donald Trump está siendo injustamente juzgado. Por lo tanto, muchos alegan que se asemeja a John Proctor, uno de los protagonistas de The Crucible, quién es injustamente acusado de brujería y llevado a la horca por no confesar ser culpable. Por otro lado, los opositores del presidente determinan que no es éticamente correcto que Donald Trump haga uso del término caza de brujas cuando en realidad es él quien está llevando a cabo una caza de brujas contra aquellos que, según él, no encajan en la sociedad americana. Además, estos mismos hacen una comparación entre el actual presidente de los Estados Unidos y el personaje de Abigail Williams de la obra anteriormente mencionada. Por lo tanto, el término “caza de brujas” ha sido utilizado a lo largo de los siglos con diferentes connotaciones políticas reflejando a su vez la sociedad de aquel momento.<br /

The rise of the postmodern presidency: the evolution of rhetoric and media usage in presidential election campaigns

This study characterizes the evolution of rhetoric used in certain presidential campaigns as evidenced through primary and secondary research, including research on the radio electioneering in President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1932 campaign, television advertisements and speeches in President Ronald Reagan’s 1984 campaign, and the Twitter usage of President Donald Trump during his 2016 Presidential Campaign and the first year of his presidency. The research focuses on these presidents’ use of each medium to disseminate campaign materials by examining specific word choice, use of visuals or audio, and how these messages translated into behavioral changes in terms of voter turnout. The main purpose of this research is to analyze how presidential rhetoric may change depending on the medium used to propagate the message, which will provide perspective on the aspects of political rhetoric that have become institutionalized over time as well as rhetoric that is unique to its medium and time period. This paper seeks to investigate the methods in which these presidents utilize their medium of choice to disseminate messages among a massive audience, with the expectation that rhetoric used and the frequency of exposure will play a large role in the success of each movement

Civic Engagement 2.0: A Blended Pedagogy of Multiliteracies and Activism

This study looks at the practice of teaching civic engagement through digital and Web 2.0 tools and examines the impact on agency and self-efficacy of first-year writing students. The primary focus is studying student attitudes toward use of these tools, civic engagement in general, and the perceived value of engaging civically through use of these tools with the hopes of better understanding the value of this work and the impact it will have on future civic, community, and political engagement. Based on the findings of a triad of studies published in 2012 – a CIRCLE study (“That’s Not Democracy”), Giovanna Mascheroni’s study of Italian youth and political uses of the web, and a study conducted by DoSomething.org – the researcher designed a first-year composition course that asked students to choose a cause or issue for the duration of the semester and take on roles of informer, reformer, advocate, and activist on three fronts: Twitter (microblogging), Wordpress (blogging), and YouTube (digital advocacy videos). A feminist methodology was used for this study, understanding that the participatory nature of the research was an essential part of the ethos of the researcher. Qualitative data was collected through analysis of student work, reflection essays, and semi-structured focus group conversations. Through the focus group discussions, the student participants and the researcher worked collaboratively to create knowledge. The findings of this study echoed those of the three studies mentioned above. In addition to showing that instruction and experience with digital civic engagement are linked to an increased likelihood to engage in the future, the study showed that there are numerous benefits to teaching new media, civic, and academic literacies through an activist lens in writing studies. Students acquire a host of academic and professional skills that will help them succeed in the classroom and their future careers. Beyond acquisition of research and 21st century writing skills, teaching digital activism empowers students, increases agency, and helps them grasp the value of disrupting existing, outdated, or oppressive power dynamics in effective ways. Finally, it helps develop lifelong learners who are self-motivated

Saving Social Media Data: Understanding Data Management Practices Among Social Media Researchers and their Implications for Archives

Social media data offer researchers new opportunities to leverage those data for their work in broad areas such as public opinion, digital culture, labor trends, and public health. Success of efforts to save social media data for reuse by researchers will depend on aligning data management and archiving practices with evolving norms around capture, use, sharing, and security of datasets containing this new type of data. This paper presents an initial foray into understanding how established practices for managing and preserving data should adapt to new demands from social media data, researchers who use and reuse social media data, and people who are subjects in social media data. We examine the data management practices of researchers who use social media data through a survey and an analysis of published articles. We discuss the data management practices described, how they differ from management of more conventional data types, and the implications for creating and maintaining stable archives for these important research resources. We discuss the similarities and differences between social media data and other types of social science research data, including other types of “found” data, and discuss the implications for data archives including social media data in their collections.National Science FoundationInstitute of Museum and Library Serviceshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154750/1/Hemphill Leonard Hedstrom JASIST pre-peer review.pdf1550Description of Hemphill Leonard Hedstrom JASIST pre-peer review.pdf : Pre-peer review articl