Quantifying Extreme Opinions on Reddit Amidst the 2023 Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Guerra, Alessio, Lepre, Marcello, Karakus, Oktay
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
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author Guerra, Alessio
Lepre, Marcello
Karakus, Oktay
author_facet Guerra, Alessio
Lepre, Marcello
Karakus, Oktay
contents This study investigates the dynamics of extreme opinions on social media during the 2023 Israeli-Palestinian conflict, utilising a comprehensive dataset of over 450,000 posts from four Reddit subreddits (r/Palestine, r/Judaism, r/IsraelPalestine, and r/worldnews). A lexicon-based, unsupervised methodology was developed to measure "extreme opinions" by considering factors such as anger, polarity, and subjectivity. The analysis identifies significant peaks in extremism scores that correspond to pivotal real-life events, such as the IDF's bombings of Al Quds Hospital and the Jabalia Refugee Camp, and the end of a ceasefire following a terrorist attack. Additionally, this study explores the distribution and correlation of these scores across different subreddits and over time, providing insights into the propagation of polarised sentiments in response to conflict events. By examining the quantitative effects of each score on extremism and analysing word cloud similarities through Jaccard indices, the research offers a nuanced understanding of the factors driving extreme online opinions. This approach underscores the potential of social media analytics in capturing the complex interplay between real-world events and online discourse, while also highlighting the limitations and challenges of measuring extremism in social media contexts.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2412_10913
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Quantifying Extreme Opinions on Reddit Amidst the 2023 Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Guerra, Alessio
Lepre, Marcello
Karakus, Oktay
Social and Information Networks
Computation and Language
This study investigates the dynamics of extreme opinions on social media during the 2023 Israeli-Palestinian conflict, utilising a comprehensive dataset of over 450,000 posts from four Reddit subreddits (r/Palestine, r/Judaism, r/IsraelPalestine, and r/worldnews). A lexicon-based, unsupervised methodology was developed to measure "extreme opinions" by considering factors such as anger, polarity, and subjectivity. The analysis identifies significant peaks in extremism scores that correspond to pivotal real-life events, such as the IDF's bombings of Al Quds Hospital and the Jabalia Refugee Camp, and the end of a ceasefire following a terrorist attack. Additionally, this study explores the distribution and correlation of these scores across different subreddits and over time, providing insights into the propagation of polarised sentiments in response to conflict events. By examining the quantitative effects of each score on extremism and analysing word cloud similarities through Jaccard indices, the research offers a nuanced understanding of the factors driving extreme online opinions. This approach underscores the potential of social media analytics in capturing the complex interplay between real-world events and online discourse, while also highlighting the limitations and challenges of measuring extremism in social media contexts.
title Quantifying Extreme Opinions on Reddit Amidst the 2023 Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
topic Social and Information Networks
Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.10913