How Emotions Unfold in Online Discussions After a Terror Attack

In the wake of a terror attack, social media is used for sharing thoughts and emotions, accessing and distributing information, and memorializing victims. Emotions are a big part of this, but there is a gap in our understanding on how those emotions evolve and what kinds of social media uses they are related to. Better understanding of the emotional and topical developments of online discussions can serve not only to fill the aforementioned gap, but also assist in developing better collective coping strategies for recovering from terror attacks. We examine what types of conversations unfolded online after the Boston Marathon Bombing and what kinds of emotions were associated with them, accounting for regional differences, and present a process model covering the general trends of such conversations. Although the phases apply to reactions to terror attacks on a general level, there are proximity-based differences to the location of the terror attack

Fear and loathing in Boston: The roles of different emotions in information sharing on social media following a terror attack

Emotions are essential to how we communicate, and online discussions are no exception. As most of the analysis on emotion so far has looked at polarity rather than specific emotions, we do not yet have a full understanding of how different emotions spark different behaviours. This study examines how five different emotions are associated with information sharing in the context of a terror attack both on a large scale and when including geolocation information in the analysis. Contrary to what previous findings suggest, increased fear and contempt levels have a negative relation with increased levels of retweeting. Positive emotion in tweets meant a decrease in retweet rates in the geolocation specific data, but an increase when all tweets were considered

Emotions Trump Facts: The Role of Emotions in on Social Media: A Literature Review

Emotions are an inseparable part of how people use social media. While a more cognitive view on social media has initially dominated the research looking into areas such as knowledge sharing, the topic of emotions and their role on social media is gaining increasing interest. As is typical to an emerging field, there is no synthesized view on what has been discovered so far and - more importantly - what has not been. This paper provides an overview of research regarding expressing emotions on social media and their impact, and makes recommendations for future research in the area. Considering differentiated emotion instead of measuring positive or negative sentiment, drawing from theories on emotion, and distinguishing between sentiment and opinion could provide valuable insights in the field

A Blockchain-Based Approach Towards Overcoming Financial Fraud in Public Sector Services

In financial markets it is common for companies and individuals to invest into foreign companies. To avoid the double taxation of investors on dividend payment - both in the country where the profit is generated as well as the country of residence - most governments have entered into bilateral double taxation treaties, whereby investors can claim a tax refund in the country where the profit is generated. Due to easily forgeable documents and insufficient international exchange of information between tax authorities, investors illegitimately apply for these tax returns causing an estimated damage of 1.8 billion USD, for example, in Denmark alone. This paper assesses the potential of a blockchain database to provide a feasible solution for overcoming this problem against the backdrop of recent advances in the public sector and the unique set of blockchain capacities. Towards this end, we develop and evaluate a blockchain-based prototype system aimed at eliminating this type of tax fraud and increasing transparency regarding the flow of dividends. While the prototype is based on the specific context of the Danish tax authority, we discuss how it can be generalized for tracking international and interorganizational transactions