Is Twitter a Public Sphere for Online Conflicts? A Cross-Ideological and Cross-Hierarchical Look

The rise in popularity of Twitter has led to a debate on its impact on public opinions. The optimists foresee an increase in online participation and democratization due to social media's personal and interactive nature. Cyber-pessimists, on the other hand, explain how social media can lead to selective exposure and can be used as a disguise for those in power to disseminate biased information. To investigate this debate empirically, we evaluate Twitter as a public sphere using four metrics: equality, diversity, reciprocity and quality. Using these measurements, we analyze the communication patterns between individuals of different hierarchical levels and ideologies. We do this within the context of three diverse conflicts: Israel-Palestine, US Democrats-Republicans, and FC Barcelona-Real Madrid. In all cases, we collect data around a central pair of Twitter accounts representing the two main parties. Our results show in a quantitative manner that Twitter is not an ideal public sphere for democratic conversations and that hierarchical effects are part of the reason why it is not.Comment: To appear in the 6th International Conference on Social Informatics (SocInfo 2014), Barcelon

Managing Diverse Online Networks in the Context of Polarization:Understanding how we grow apart on and through social media

Social media enable their users to be connected with a diverse group of people increasing their chances of coming across divergent viewpoints. Thus, network diversity is a key issue for understanding the potentials of social media for creating a cross-cutting communication space that is one of the premises of a functioning democracy. This article analyzes the strategies social media users adopt to manage their network diversity in the context of increasing polarization. The study is based on 29 semi-structured interviews with diverse social media users from Turkey and qualitative network maps. Furthermore, the study adopts a cross-platform approach comparing Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp in relation to the diversity of their users’ networks. The study shows that social media users adopt different strategies interchangeably in specific contexts. These strategies include visible (unfriending, blocking) and invisible (muting, unfollowing, and ignoring) forms of disconnection, debating, observing divergent opinions, and self-censorship. Political interest of social media users, political climate, issue sensitivity, and “imagined affordances” of social media platforms play a role in users’ choices about which strategy to choose when they are confronted with divergent viewpoints through their diverse online networks. Building on the unfriending literature that points out to rather partisan users, who unfriend, unfollow or block others, this article demonstrates that in peak moments of polarization, also the politically disengaged or moderate users disconnect from diverse others

Friends or Foes: Understanding Communication and Interaction Patterns of Homogeneous and Cross-Cutting Spaces in Online Activism

The understanding of people’s communication structure is crucial to answering the ongoing debates about whether social media is a “filter bubble”. Focusing on this topic, our work investigated people’s preference for homogeneous or cross-cutting communications in an online activism setting, also the difference in language use and hyperlink use in different communications types. We used the tweets with #Silent Sam to classify communication types of user interactions. After the metric generation, significance tests, and subgraph mining, we found that people are 15 times more likely to communicate with like-minded people. However, cross-cutting communications increase simultaneously with homogeneous ones when the activity level rises. Also, homogeneous communications significantly use more words related to perception, while cross-cutting ones have more words about cognition. We also unveiled the dark side of the crosscutting communications as they are generally more toxic and aggressive. The use of outside links in the tweets is rare for both cross-cutting and homogeneous communications. Nonetheless, the cross-cutting tweets embed more URLs while they direct to less diverse domains than the homogeneous ones. Left-leaning media sources with mixed to high factuality are linked as the outside source for mostly homogeneous interactions. Our work made contributions in the ways of providing the new methodology of subgraph mining to research about partisan sharing and rendering new insights to the research in online activism.Master of Science in Information Scienc

The polarizing effect of partisan echo chambers

We are witnessing increasing partisan polarization across the world. It is often argued that partisan ‘echo chambers’ are one of the drivers of both policy and affective polarization. In this article, we develop and test the ar- gument that the political homogeneity of people’s social environment shapes polarization. Using an innovative, large-scale pre-registered ‘lab-in-the-field’ experiment in the UK, we examine how polarization is influenced by parti- san group homogeneity. We recruit nationally representative partisans and assign them to discuss a salient policy issue, either with like-minded par- tisans (an echo chamber) or in a mixed-partisan group. This allows us to examine how group composition affects polarization. In line with our ex- pectations, we find that partisan echo chambers increase both policy and affective polarization compared to mixed discussion groups. This has im- portant implications for our understanding of the drivers of polarization and for how outgroup animosity might be ameliorated in the mass public

The Activist Tale of Emergent Crowds & Mobilized Communities: Investigating the Interplay Between Consumer Activism & Consumer Collectives

Consumers are collaboratively and collectively engaging in activist performances in the marketplace to challenge market(er) hegemony and power. Facilitated and enabled by online technologies, consumer collectives are waging battles both behind and outside of the screen, but is the performance of activism from a collective perspective influenced by the nature of the collective itself? This dissertation explores the intersection and interplay between consumer activism and collectives by addressing the questions of how the nature of a primarily online consumer collective influences its performance of activism, and conversely, how the performance of activism influences the evolution of pre-existing collectives. Analyzing five activist campaign sites using a netnographic method, this dissertation proposes that two types of collectives, the Emergent Crowd and the Mobilized Community, differ significantly in terms of their identity work and leadership organization and structure. These differences impact the campaigning behaviors exhibited; knowledge, resources, and platforms used; and tactical choices developed and enacted that constitute the activist performances. Furthermore, Mobilized Communities are shown to experience relationship transformations within and external to the collective that impact both individual behavior and the collectives evolutionary trajectory. In particular, alliance formation efforts, particularly enabled by social media platforms, are examined and discussed, ranging from non-responders to collaborative partners. Conclusions for practical and research applications regarding the distinct performances of activism in light of the collective a company or cause encounters, including suggestions for managing and taking advantage of value-creating opportunities, are suggested and discussed

Detecting Political Framing Shifts and the Adversarial Phrases within\\ Rival Factions and Ranking Temporal Snapshot Contents in Social Media

abstract: Social Computing is an area of computer science concerned with dynamics of communities and cultures, created through computer-mediated social interaction. Various social media platforms, such as social network services and microblogging, enable users to come together and create social movements expressing their opinions on diverse sets of issues, events, complaints, grievances, and goals. Methods for monitoring and summarizing these types of sociopolitical trends, its leaders and followers, messages, and dynamics are needed. In this dissertation, a framework comprising of community and content-based computational methods is presented to provide insights for multilingual and noisy political social media content. First, a model is developed to predict the emergence of viral hashtag breakouts, using network features. Next, another model is developed to detect and compare individual and organizational accounts, by using a set of domain and language-independent features. The third model exposes contentious issues, driving reactionary dynamics between opposing camps. The fourth model develops community detection and visualization methods to reveal underlying dynamics and key messages that drive dynamics. The final model presents a use case methodology for detecting and monitoring foreign influence, wherein a state actor and news media under its control attempt to shift public opinion by framing information to support multiple adversarial narratives that facilitate their goals. In each case, a discussion of novel aspects and contributions of the models is presented, as well as quantitative and qualitative evaluations. An analysis of multiple conflict situations will be conducted, covering areas in the UK, Bangladesh, Libya and the Ukraine where adversarial framing lead to polarization, declines in social cohesion, social unrest, and even civil wars (e.g., Libya and the Ukraine).Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Computer Science 201

The Anthropology of Parliaments

The Anthropology of Parliaments offers a fresh, comparative approach to analysing parliaments and democratic politics, drawing together rare ethnographic work by anthropologists and politics scholars from around the world. Crewe’s insights deepen our understanding of the complexity of political institutions. She reveals how elected politicians navigate relationships by forging alliances and thwarting opponents; how parliamentary buildings are constructed as sites of work, debate and the nation in miniature; and how politicians and officials engage with hierarchies, continuity and change. This book also proposes how to study parliaments through an anthropological lens while in conversation with other disciplines. The dive into ethnographies from across Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific Region demolishes hackneyed geo-political categories and culminates in a new comparative theory about the contradictions in everyday political work. This important book will be of interest to anyone studying parliaments but especially those in the disciplines of anthropology and sociology; politics, legal and development studies; and international relations

The Personality Profile and Leadership Style of U.S. President Donald J. Trump in Office

This paper presents the results of an indirect assessment, from the conceptual perspective of personologist Theodore Millon, of the personality of Donald J. Trump, 45th president of the United States, based solely on personality dynamics revealed by his political behavior in office. Psychodiagnostically relevant data were collected from biographical sources and media reports of Trump’s postinaugural political behavior from January 20, 2017 until July 2020 and synthesized into a personality profile using the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with DSM-III-R, DSM-IV, and DSM-5. The personality profile yielded by the MIDC was analyzed in accordance with interpretive guidelines provided in the MIDC and Millon Index of Personality Styles manuals. Trump’s primary personality patterns were found to be Ambitious/self-serving (bordering on exploitative), Dominant/controlling (bordering on aggressive), and Outgoing/gregarious (bordering on impulsive), infused with secondary features of the Dauntless/dissenting pattern. There is suggestive, equivocal evidence of incipient Distrusting/suspicious and Erratic/unstable tendencies emerging during Trump’s time in office. Ambitious individuals are bold, competitive, and self-assured; they easily assume leadership roles, expect others to recognize their special qualities, and often act as though entitled. Dominant individuals enjoy the power to direct others and to evoke obedience and respect; they are tough and unsentimental and often make effective leaders. Outgoing individuals are dramatic attention‑getters who thrive on being the center of social events, go out of their way to be popular with others, have confidence in their social abilities, tend to be impulsive and undisciplined, and become easily bored — especially when faced with repetitive or mundane tasks. Dauntless individuals tend to flout tradition, dislike following routine, sometimes act impulsively and irresponsibly, and are inclined to elaborate on or shade the truth and skirt the law. Trump’s executive leadership style in office has been bold, competitive, and self-assured (i.e., ambitious); tough and directive (i.e., dominant); impulsive and undisciplined (i.e., outgoing); and disruptively tradition-defying, with an inclination to shade the truth and skirt the law (i.e., dauntless)

AI and extremism in social networks

Studien utforsker hvordan midler som kunstig intelligens, AI- drevne chatbots, kan være kilder man kan regne med som moralske aktører på digitale plattformer og som kan være identifiserbare opprørsmodeller til bekjempelse av ekstremistiske og voldsforherligende ytringer på sosiale medieplattformer. Fremveksten av digital nettverkskommunikasjon har lettet prosessen med sosiale bevegelser, noe fenomenet «Den arabiske våren» tydelig demonstrerer. Sosiale medier har vært et verdifullt verktøy når det gjelder å utvikle kollektive identiteter med en felles ideologi for å fremme et bestemt mål eller en sak og gi alternative plattformer for undertrykte samfunn. Imidlertid forblir virkningen og konsekvensene av sosiale medier i samfunn der maktbalansen forrykkes gjennom fundamentale endringer et bekymringsfullt fenomen. Radikaliserte individer og grupper har også hevdet sin tilstedeværelse på sosiale medieplattformer gjennom å fremme fordommer, hat og vold. Ekstremistiske grupper bruker ulike taktikker for å utøve makten sin på disse plattformene. Bekjempelsen av voldelig ekstremisme på sosiale medieplattformer blir som regel ikke koordinert av aktuelle aktører som regjeringer, sosiale medieselskaper, FN eller andre private organisasjoner. I tillegg har fremdeles ikke forsøk på å konstituere AI til bekjempelse av voldelig ekstremisme blitt gjennomført, men lovende resultater har blitt oppnådd gjennom noen initiativer. Prosjektet som en ‘case study’ ser på den nylige reformen i Etiopia som ble gjennomført av Nobels fredsprisvinner 2019 Abiy Ahmed etter at han tiltrådte som statsminister i Etiopia i april 2018. Etter flere tiår med undertrykkelse har den nye maktovertakelsen der det politiske rommet ble åpnet opp og ytringsfrihet ble tillatt, uventet ført til et skred av etniske gruppers polarisering. Nye etno-ekstremister har dukket frem fra alle kriker og kroker av landet og også fra sin tilværelse i diaspora. Studien ser videre på hvilken rolle sosiale medier til tider spiller ved direkte å presse på for å påvirke til og dermed forårsake voldelige handlinger på grasrota.Ved å bruke en kvalitativ forskningsmetode for ustrukturerte intervjuer med etiopiske brukere av sosiale medier, journalister og aktivister, identifiserer studien kjerneaspektene ved konfliktene og foreslår initiativer som kan brukes til å motvirke voldelig etnisk ekstremisme. Ved å bruke relevant litteratur ser prosjektet videre på innarbeidelsen av kunstig intelligens (AI) i «moralske handlinger» på sosiale medier og hvordan den kan utformes slik at den av seg selv kan ta i bruk moralske beslutningsevner i nettverket. I tillegg ser studien på mulighetene videre for bekjempelse av voldelig ekstremisme og skisserer den spesifikke rollen ikke menneskelige aktører som profesjonelle troll og bots på sosiale medier bør spille for å slåss mot radikalisering som kan føre til voldelige handlinger.Mastergradsoppgave i digital kulturMAHF-DIKULDIKULT35