Using Deliberation-Centric Social Network Analysis to Measure Balkanization

8 Pages Posted: 10 Feb 2017

See all articles by Mark Klein

Mark Klein

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Anatoliy Gruzd

Ryerson University

James Lannigan

University of Toronto

Date Written: February 9, 2017

Abstract

Existing approaches to social media analysis are deeply limited by the fact that they typically incorporate little or no information about the semantics of the user interactions: they analyze who talked to whom but not what they talked about. In this paper, we present deliberation-centric social network analysis, a "semi-formal" approach that is built around coding and analyzing the deliberative topology of discussions. The requisite coding can be done relatively quickly, even by non-experts, but enables analytics of unprecedented power. This paper will describe the technique, review the kind of novel analytics it enables, and demonstrate its application to assessing balkanization in a set of Reddit forums. We also consider some of the rich future possibilities of deliberation-centric social network analysis.

Keywords: social network analysis

Suggested Citation

Klein, Mark and Gruzd, Anatoliy and Lannigan, James, Using Deliberation-Centric Social Network Analysis to Measure Balkanization (February 9, 2017). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2914554 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2914554

Mark Klein (Contact Author)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( email )

77 Massachusetts Avenue
MIT E94-1505
Cambridge, MA 02139
United States
617-253-6796 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://cci.mit.edu/klein/

Anatoliy Gruzd

Ryerson University

350 Victoria Street
Toronto, Ontario M5B 2K3
Canada

James Lannigan

University of Toronto

105 St George Street
Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G8
Canada

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