2017/05/16 by Kiran Garimella, Gianmarco De Francisci Morales, Garimella, Kiran +5 · 1 citation
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · Social Sciences · #Complex Network Analysis Techniques #FOS: Computer and information sciences #FOS: Physical sciences #Misinformation and Its Impacts #Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence #Physics and Society (physics.soc-ph) #Social Media and Politics #Social and Information Networks (cs.SI) #cs.SI #physics.soc-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1705.05908
accepted at ACM WebScience 2017
arxiv created 2017/05/16 · openalex publication_date 2017/05/16 · arxiv updated 2017/05/18 · openalex created_date 2022/10/03 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We study the evolution of long-lived controversial debates as manifested on Twitter from 2011 to 2016. Specifically, we explore how the structure of interactions and content of discussion varies with the level of collective attention, as evidenced by the number of users discussing a topic. Spikes in the volume of users typically correspond to external events that increase the public attention on the topic -- as, for instance, discussions about `gun control' often erupt after a mass shooting. This work is the first to study the dynamic evolution of polarized online debates at such scale. By employing a wide array of network and content analysis measures, we find consistent evidence that increased collective attention is associated with increased network polarization and network concentration within each side of the debate; and overall more uniform lexicon usage across all users.