Religious Violence and Twitter: Networks of Knowledge, Empathy and Fascination

Religions

Emily Bryan¹  Samah Senbel²  Carly Seigel³ 

[1] Department of Languages and Literature, College of Arts and Science, Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT 06825, USA;School of Computer Science and Engineering, Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT 06825, USA;Weston High School, Weston, CT 06829, USA;

关键词: social media;    virtual community;    Twitter;    text analysis;    word frequency;    religious violence;   

DOI  :  10.3390/rel13030245

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Twitter analysis through data mining, text analysis, and visualization, coupled with the application of actor-network-theory, reveals a coalition of heterogenous religious affiliations around grief and fascination. While religious violence has always existed, the prevalence of social media has led to an increase in the magnitude of discussions around the topic. This paper examines the different reactions on Twitter to violence targeting three religious communities: the 2015 Charleston Church shooting, the 2018 Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting, and the 2019 Christchurch Mosque shootings. The attacks were all perpetrated by white nationalists with firearms. By analyzing large Twitter datasets in response to the attacks, we were able to render visible associations among actors across religions communities, national identities, and political persuasions. What this project revealed is that if we apply actor-network-theory and data visualization to look at networks created by human/non-human (text, computer, phone, meme, tweet, retweet, hashtag) actors, we can see that knowledge, empathy, and fascination drive communication around mass violence against religious communities.

【 授权许可】

Unknown