The Arab Spring and its social media audiences : English and Arabic Twitter users and their networks
The Arab Spring and its social media audiences : English and Arabic Twitter users and their networks
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阿拉伯之春及其社交媒体受众：英语和阿拉伯语 Twitter 用户及其网络
DOI：
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发表时间：
2013
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
J. Burgess
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
A. Bruns;Tim Highfield;J. Burgess
2011年的“阿拉伯之春”可能会夸大Facebook和Twitter对这些起义的影响，但从突尼斯到叙利亚的抗议和骚乱确实产生了大量的社交媒体活动。仅在推特上，2011年就产生了数百万条带有#libya或#egypt标签的推文，既有直接受影响的这些国家的公民，也有来自更远地方的旁观者。然而，目前尚不清楚的是，这两个群体之间有多少直接互动（特别是考虑到他们之间潜在的语言障碍）。基于2011年1月至11月收集的标签数据集，本文比较了埃及人民革命和利比亚内战期间Twitter的使用模式。使用定制的工具来处理“大数据”，我们研究了随着时间的推移，英语，阿拉伯语和混合语言的Twitter用户发送的推文量，并研究了这些群体之间的互动网络（通过@回复，转发或两者兼而有之），因为它们在这些起义的过程中发展和转变。检查@回复和转推流量，我们确定的一般模式之间的信息流的英语和阿拉伯语的Twittersphere方面，并强调用户桥接两个语言领域所发挥的作用。
2011 ‘Arab Spring’ are likely to overstate the impact of Facebook and Twitter on these uprisings, it is nonetheless true that protests and unrest in countries from Tunisia to Syria generated a substantial amount of social media activity. On Twitter alone, several millions of tweets containing the hashtags #libya or #egypt were generated during 2011, both by directly affected citizens of these countries, and by onlookers from further afield. What remains unclear, though, is the extent to which there was any direct interaction between these two groups (especially considering potential language barriers between them). Building on hashtag datasets gathered between January and November 2011, this paper compares patterns of Twitter usage during the popular revolution in Egypt and the civil war in Libya. Using custom-made tools for processing ‘big data’, we examine the volume of tweets sent by English-, Arabic-, and mixed-language Twitter users over time, and examine the networks of interaction (variously through @replying, retweeting, or both) between these groups as they developed and shifted over the course of these uprisings. Examining @reply and retweet traffic, we identify general patterns of information flow between the English- and Arabic-speaking sides of the Twittersphere, and highlight the roles played by users bridging both language spheres.