Quantifying Salient Concepts Discussed in Social Media Content: A Case Study using Twitter Content Written by Radicalized Youth

Authors

  • Shadi Ghajar-Khosravi Defence Research & Development Canada – Toronto
  • Peter Kwantes Defence Research & Development Canada – Toronto
  • Natalia Derbentseva Defence Research & Development Canada – Toronto
  • Laura Huey University of Western Ontario

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15664/jtr.1241

Keywords:

Social Media, Islamic State, Twitter, Radicalization

Abstract

Social Media has become an important source for information about people and real-world events. Its importance is driven largely by the enormous number of people generating and updating content in Social Media platforms. In this report, we measure the extent to which we can accurately measure the salience of topics/concepts that might be of interest to an analyst, and evaluate whether concepts like positive and negative sentiment can be meaningfully extracted from Social Media content. As a test case, we examined Twitter content generated by female users who are sympathetic to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The basic technique proposed here can be developed further to create a more fine-grained exanimation of Social Media content.

Author Biographies

Shadi Ghajar-Khosravi, Defence Research & Development Canada – Toronto

Shadi Ghajar-Khosravi is a scientist at DRDC Toronto Research Centre. She has a PhD in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (human factors) from the University of Toronto, and a Masters of Information Systems from the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto. Her research interests include social network analysis, information systems design and analysis, and the user-centered design and evaluation of interfaces.

Peter Kwantes, Defence Research & Development Canada – Toronto

is a scientist at DRDC Toronto Research Centre. He has a PhD in Cognitive Psychology from Queen’s University at Kingston. He has worked as a scientist for DRDC since 2002 after completing a two-year post-doctoral fellowship in the ARC Key Centre for Human Factors and Applied Cognitive Psychology at the University of Queensland in Australia.

Natalia Derbentseva, Defence Research & Development Canada – Toronto

Natalia Derbenstseva is a scientist at DRDC Toronto Research Centre. She has a PhD in Management Sciences from the University of Waterloo. She conducts research on information representation, development of collaborative understanding, individual sense making and behavioural aspects of cyber security.

Laura Huey, University of Western Ontario

Laura Huey is the author of several articles on issues related to policing, cyber-security and terrorism. She is currently conducting research (with Johnny Nhan, TCU) on the role of gender in online radicalizing milieus and exploring women’s participation in the creation and dissemination of pro-jihadist propaganda. Other current research is in the areas of cyber-security (as a member of the SERENE-RISC network) and alternate forms of police reporting.

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Published

2016-05-17

Issue

Vol. 7 No. 2 (2016)

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2016 The Author(s)

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