scholarly journals Toward a Standard Approach for Echo Chamber Detection: Reddit Case Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 5390
Author(s):  
Virginia Morini ◽  
Laura Pollacci ◽  
Giulio Rossetti
Keyword(s):  
Online Social Networks ◽  
General Framework ◽  
Formal Definition ◽  
Digital Environment ◽  
Echo Chambers ◽  
Echo Chamber ◽  
Stability And Consistency ◽  
Meso Scale ◽  
Over Time

In a digital environment, the term echo chamber refers to an alarming phenomenon in which beliefs are amplified or reinforced by communication repetition inside a closed system and insulated from rebuttal. Up to date, a formal definition, as well as a platform-independent approach for its detection, is still lacking. This paper proposes a general framework to identify echo chambers on online social networks built on top of features they commonly share. Our approach is based on a four-step pipeline that involves (i) the identification of a controversial issue; (ii) the inference of users’ ideology on the controversy; (iii) the construction of users’ debate network; and (iv) the detection of homogeneous meso-scale communities. We further apply our framework in a detailed case study on Reddit, covering the first two and a half years of Donald Trump’s presidency. Our main purpose is to assess the existence of Pro-Trump and Anti-Trump echo chambers among three sociopolitical issues, as well as to analyze their stability and consistency over time. Even if users appear strongly polarized with respect to their ideology, most tend not to insulate themselves in echo chambers. However, the found polarized communities were proven to be definitely stable over time.

scholarly journals Quantifying echo chamber effects in information spreading over political communication networks

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wesley Cota ◽  
Silvio C. Ferreira ◽  
Romualdo Pastor-Satorras ◽  
Michele Starnini
Keyword(s):  
Communication Networks ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Online Social Networks ◽  
Connected Component ◽  
Political Position ◽  
Echo Chambers ◽  
Strongly Connected ◽  
Echo Chamber ◽  
Information Spreading ◽  
Shed Light

AbstractEcho chambers in online social networks, in which users prefer to interact only with ideologically-aligned peers, are believed to facilitate misinformation spreading and contribute to radicalize political discourse. In this paper, we gauge the effects of echo chambers in information spreading phenomena over political communication networks. Mining 12 million Twitter messages, we reconstruct a network in which users interchange opinions related to the impeachment of the former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. We define a continuous political leaning parameter, independent of the network’s structure, that allows to quantify the presence of echo chambers in the strongly connected component of the network. These are reflected in two well-separated communities of similar sizes with opposite views of the impeachment process. By means of simple spreading models, we show that the capability of users in propagating the content they produce, measured by the associated spreading capacity, strongly depends on their attitude. Users expressing pro-impeachment leanings are capable to transmit information, on average, to a larger audience than users expressing anti-impeachment leanings. Furthermore, the users’ spreading capacity is correlated to the diversity, in terms of political position, of the audience reached. Our method can be exploited to identify the presence of echo chambers and their effects across different contexts and shed light upon the mechanisms allowing to break echo chambers.

When Culturally Significant Songs are Decontextualised: The Initiation Song Somagwaza, A Case Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
T Dowling ◽  
Somikazi Deyi ◽  
Anele Gobodwana
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Popular Song ◽  
Focus Group Discussions ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Ritual Music ◽  
Constant Comparative Method ◽  
Small Focus ◽  
Over Time

While there have been a number of studies on the decontextualisation and secularisation of traditional ritual music in America, Taiwan and other parts of the globe, very little has been written on the processes and transformations that South Africa’s indigenous ceremonial songs go through over time. This study was prompted by the authors’ interest in, and engagement with the Xhosa initiation song Somagwaza, which has been re-imagined as a popular song, but has also purportedly found its way into other religious spaces. In this article, we attempted to investigate the extent to which the song Somagwaza is still associated with the Xhosa initiation ritual and to analyse evidence of it being decontextualised and secularised in contemporary South Africa. Our methodology included an examination of the various academic treatments of the song, an analysis of the lyrics of a popular song, bearing the same name, holding small focus group discussions, and distributing questionnaires to speakers of isiXhosa on the topic of the song. The data gathered were analysed using the constant comparative method of analysing qualitative research.

Thinning in mature eastern white pine: 43-year case study

2002 ◽  
Vol 78 (4) ◽  
pp. 539-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul D Anderson ◽  
John C Zasada ◽  
Glen W Erickson ◽  
Zigmond A Zasada
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Diversity ◽  
Dna Analysis ◽  
Large Diameter ◽  
White Pine ◽  
Thinning Intensity ◽  
Pine Regeneration ◽  
Volume Production ◽  
Pine Stands ◽  
Over Time

A white pine (Pinus strobus L.) stand at the western margin of the species range, approximately 125 years of age at present, was thinned in 1953 from 33.5 m2 ha-1 to target residual basal areas of 18.4, 23.0, 27.5, and 32.1 m2 ha-1 . Repeated measurement over the following 43-years indicated that the greatest total volume production and the greatest number of large diameter trees occurred in the unit of highest residual density. Over time, the distribution of stems was predominantly random although mortality between 1979 and 1996 resulted in a tendency for clumping in the 23.0 and 27.5 m2 ha-1 treatments. DNA analysis indicated that thinning intensity had little effect on the genetic diversity of residual white pine. This study suggests that mature white pine stands in northern Minnesota may be managed at relatively high densities without loss of productivity. However, regardless of overstory density, there was little or no white pine regeneration occurring in this stand. Key words: thinning, growth, genetic diversity, molecular markers, spatial pattern, regeneration

scholarly journals There can be only one truth: Ideological segregation and online news communities in Ukraine

2021 ◽  
pp. 174276652110099
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Urman ◽  
Mykola Makhortykh
Keyword(s):  
Online News ◽  
Online Platform ◽  
News Content ◽  
Echo Chambers ◽  
Region Of Residence ◽  
Online Environments ◽  
Partisan News

The paper examines ideological segregation among Ukrainian users in online environments, using as a case study partisan news communities on Vkontakte, the largest online platform in post-communist states. Its findings suggest that despite their insignificant numbers, partisan news communities attract substantial attention from Ukrainian users and can encourage the formation of isolated ideological cliques – or ‘echo chambers’ – that increase societal polarisation. The paper also investigates factors that predict users’ interest in partisan content and establishes that the region of residence is the key predictor of selective consumption of pro-Ukrainian or pro-Russian partisan news content.

Decolonial Information Practices: Repatriating and Stewarding the Popol Vuh Online

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 107-119
Author(s):  
Pamela Espinosa de los Monteros
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Digital Library ◽  
Knowledge Society ◽  
Knowledge Work ◽  
Vantage Point ◽  
Cultural Appropriation ◽  
Digital Environment ◽  
Popol Vuh

AbstractThe digitization and online dissemination of the Popol Vuh, a historical indigenous knowledge work, poses distinct ethical, legal, intellectual, and technological concerns for humanities researchers and information practitioners seeking to study and digitally curate works through a decolonized consciousness. Ongoing debates on data sovereignty, the repatriation of cultural artifacts, and cultural appropriation question the ability of researchers and information practitioners to effectively steward indigenous knowledge works in a digital environment. While consensus on best practices for the postcolonial digital library or archive remain to be established, information inequity continues to persist, effacing indigenous knowledge, languages, and content from the knowledge society. The following case study will discuss the results of a 10-year multi-institutional initiative to curate, repatriate, and steward the reproduction of an indigenous knowledge work online. From the vantage point of the library, the case study will explore the project’s successes, failures, and the work left to be done.

scholarly journals Can politically oriented interventions in built heritage contribute to its authenticity? Erbil Citadel’s Babylonian Gate as a case study

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed Awadh Jasim ◽  
Laura Hanks ◽  
Katharina Borsi
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Value ◽  
Cultural Issues ◽  
Built Heritage ◽  
Projection Screen ◽  
Conflicting Demands ◽  
Existential Issue ◽  
Over Time

AbstractToday, the concept of built heritage authenticity is a projection screen for conflicting demands and thus a ‘contested field’. Short-sighted readings started to drag the concept behind different ill-considered treatises, in which some heritage aspects loosely outweighed other aspects. Archaeological perspectives that tend to freeze heritage structures in time, such as those that are privileged upon other contemporary socio-cultural issues, while political takes also overshadowed other epistemological prospects, and vice versa. Repercussions have made inclusion of what is regarded as ‘inevitable changes’ within the built context problematic as to the re-interpretation and thus assessment of its authenticity. Despite their possible momentary threat to the latter, these changes may add to the cultural value of the context over time, granting new potential that may instead boost its authenticity. This paper investigates the potential continuity of Erbil Citadel’s Babylonian Gate as an inevitable change within the site’s built context by studying the Gate’s controversial political impacts on the context’s authenticity. This study affirms that authenticity is a transcendental value of an open-ended progressive nature, which cannot be reduced to a specific period or properties within the historical chronology of built heritage. Hence, authenticity should be approached as a meaningful existential issue, while revelation of its essence and thus its dimension entails precise scrutiny of both the tangibles and intangibles of the context. However, to be part of its authenticity, any change in the context should be adaptable and possibly incorporated as a new value within its cultural strata, thus enabling progressive support for site authenticity.

scholarly journals A Holistic Framework for Evaluating Adaptation Approaches to Coastal Hazards and Sea Level Rise: A Case Study from Imperial Beach, California

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 1324
Author(s):  
David Revell ◽  
Phil King ◽  
Jeff Giliam ◽  
Juliano Calil ◽  
Sarah Jenkins ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Public Trust ◽  
Adaptation Strategy ◽  
Public Benefits ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Local Risk ◽  
Over Time

Sea level rise increases community risks from erosion, wave flooding, and tides. Current management typically protects existing development and infrastructure with coastal armoring. These practices ignore long-term impacts to public trust coastal recreation and natural ecosystems. This adaptation framework models physical responses to the public beach and private upland for each adaptation strategy over time, linking physical changes in widths to damages, economic costs, and benefits from beach recreation and nature using low-lying Imperial Beach, California, as a case study. Available coastal hazard models identified community vulnerabilities, and local risk communication engagement prioritized five adaptation approaches—armoring, nourishment, living shorelines, groins, and managed retreat. This framework innovates using replacement cost as a proxy for ecosystem services normally not valued and examines a managed retreat policy approach using a public buyout and rent-back option. Specific methods and economic values used in the analysis need more research and innovation, but the framework provides a scalable methodology to guide coastal adaptation planning everywhere. Case study results suggest that coastal armoring provides the least public benefits over time. Living shoreline approaches show greater public benefits, while managed retreat, implemented sooner, provides the best long-term adaptation strategy to protect community identity and public trust resources.

scholarly journals Echo chamber detection and analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Giacomo Villa ◽  
Gabriella Pasi ◽  
Marco Viviani
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Community Detection ◽  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Selective Exposure ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
News Sources ◽  
Detection Strategy ◽  
Echo Chambers ◽  
Echo Chamber ◽  
Content Aware

AbstractSocial media allow to fulfill perceived social needs such as connecting with friends or other individuals with similar interests into virtual communities; they have also become essential as news sources, microblogging platforms, in particular, in a variety of contexts including that of health. However, due to the homophily property and selective exposure to information, social media have the tendency to create distinct groups of individuals whose ideas are highly polarized around certain topics. In these groups, a.k.a. echo chambers, people only "hear their own voice,” and divergent visions are no longer taken into account. This article focuses on the study of the echo chamber phenomenon in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, by considering both the relationships connecting individuals and semantic aspects related to the content they share over Twitter. To this aim, we propose an approach based on the application of a community detection strategy to distinct topology- and content-aware representations of the COVID-19 conversation graph. Then, we assess and analyze the controversy and homogeneity among the different polarized groups obtained. The evaluations of the approach are carried out on a dataset of tweets related to COVID-19 collected between January and March 2020.

Populism and Religion in Brazil: The View from Education Policy

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Catarina Ianni Segatto ◽  
Mário Aquino Alves ◽  
Andrea Pineda
Keyword(s):  
Education Policy ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Welfare Services ◽  
National Congress ◽  
Over Time

This article is a case study of Brazil, a country where Catholic-based organizations have historically played a key role in providing education and welfare services. Since the 1980s, these organizations have supported progressive changes at both the national and subnational levels. Nevertheless, the influence of religion on education policy has shifted in the last few decades. Pentecostal and Neopentecostal groups have gained prominence through representatives in the National Congress, and, in 2018, formed a coalition enabling the election of a right-wing populist President. We analyse the trajectory of religious groups’ influence on Brazil’s education policy over time (colonization to the 1980s, the 1980s to the beginning of the 2000s, and the 2000s until now) through a qualitative-historical analysis of primary and secondary data. This article argues that both Catholic and Protestant groups have influenced progressive changes in Brazil’s education policy, but they also share conservative ideas impeding further advances.

scholarly journals The multiplicity of halal standards: a case study of application to slaughterhouses

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Abdallah ◽  
Mohammed Abdel Rahem ◽  
Antonella Pasqualone
Keyword(s):  
Food Products ◽  
Regulatory Framework ◽  
Close Collaboration ◽  
Western Countries ◽  
Production Processes ◽  
Islamic Countries ◽  
Certification And Accreditation ◽  
Over Time

AbstractFood products suitable for Muslim consumers should be halal certified, particularly when their origins or production processes are doubtful. However, there is a multiplicity of halal standards. This situation may generate confusion, particularly for producers in Western countries who would like to certify their products in order to export them to Islamic countries. This study analyzed the reasons underlying the multiplicity of standards and reviewed the attempts of harmonization over time. Then, the case study of application to slaughterhouses was considered, by comparing four different halal standards (namely GSO 993:2015, OIC/SMIIC 1:2019, HAS 23103:2012, and MS 1500:2019) representative of different geographic areas. Animal stunning was critically examined, comparing tradition with modernity. The study evidenced that the basic requirements related to slaughtering are common to all the halal standards considered, but several differences occur in more specific details. Only a close collaboration between the authorities of all the countries involved in issuing halal certifications will lead to a homogeneous regulatory framework with unified certification and accreditation procedures, increasingly required in a globalized market.

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