mapping the arab blogosphere
DESCRIPTION
ONLINE DISCOURSE IN THE ARAB WORLD: Dispelling the MythsTRANSCRIPT
presentation forUS Institute for Peace
June 17, 2009
John Palfrey
Harvard University
John Kelly Morningside Analytics
Mapping the Arabic Blogosphere: Politics, Culture, and Dissent
Rob FarisHarvard University
Harvard University
Bruce Etling
Framework:
Why the blogosphere?
Methods and Analysis:Core data:
35,000 Arabic language web logs meeting base criteria-determined by automated text analysis to be Arabic language -exclude blogspam, poorly connected blogs-exclude social network hybrids, platform-specific networks-except those that connect to central blogosphere
Found no clear boundary with English, French! So…-identified English and French crossover blogs (approx 4,000)
Social Network Mapping:selected 6,451 most connected, large network corestructural clustering, attentive clustering, visualization
Computer Analysis:text analysis, word and term frequenciesmetadata
Human Coding:over 4000 blogs, 2 scripts, 10 Arabic speaking researchersBasic demographicsTopicsQualitative descriptions
languages
languages
English Scandinavian Persian Spanish
French German Portuguese Hungarian
Arabic Vietnamese Chinese Russian
Proximity Clusters:
Attentive Clusters:
3-D Map
Actually, it looks more like this:
Attentive Clusters:
Attentive Clusters:
Attentive Clusters:
Western orientation
Western orientation
Religious orientation
Religious orientation
Major Zones:
Levant/English Bridge
Major Zones:
Maghreb/French Bridge
Major Zones:
Egyptian Blogosphere
Major Zones:
National Arabic
Major Zones:
Islam Focus
Surprises
?
1
Where is Iraq?
metadata: tags
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2
Media Ecosystem
outlink analysisKuwait Arabic
outlink analysisKuwait Arabic
CLUSTER FOCUS INDEX
outlink analysisKuwait Arabic
sites preferred by this cluster
CLUSTER FOCUS INDEX
outlink analysisKuwait Arabic
outlink analysis
outlink analysisMuslim Brotherhood
outlink analysisMuslim Brotherhood
CLUSTER FOCUS INDEX
sites preferred by this cluster
outlink analysisMuslim Brotherhood
outlink analysis
outlink analysis
outlink analysis
outlink analysis
outlink analysis
outlink analysis
outlink analysis
3
Everyone must be talking about America, right?
text analysis“America” - 1 Year
text analysis“corruption” - 1 Year
text analysis“Palestine” - 1 Year
issues bloggers discuss everywhere
text analysis“Tomorrow Party” - 1 Year
Egyptian reformist party
text analysis
Speaker of Kuwaiti Nat’l Assembly
“Jassem Al-Kharafi” - 1 Year
human coding
human coding
human coding
text analysis“corruption” - 2 weeks
text analysis“Egypt” - 2 weeks
text analysis“America” - 2 weeks
text analysis“Obama” - 2 weeks
text analysis“Obama” - 2 weeks
Surprises
1. Iraq enmeshed in bridging region to English, US blogosphere
2. Web 2.0 platforms have largest reach, bigger even than Al Jazeera
3. US not a dominant topic: domestic issues, terrorism, internal cultural struggle is more important
Implications
Results from the study:
• We did not find a cluster focused on extremism or advocating violent jihad.
• In the blogs in the public blogs we investigated, we did not find any significant support for extremism
• It appears that this type of conversation is hidden in ‘private publics’—walled off private spaces such as password protected chat rooms
• How can we promote free and open networked public sphere?
Implications
Contact theory and bridge bloggers—The more contact (including virtual?) that groups have with one another, the greater their level of understanding and the lower the chances of conflict.
Bridge bloggers are important interpreters of their home countries’ politics and cultures, perhaps allowing us to get beyond cartoonish views of one another, appreciate the complexity of views in the Arabic blogosphere.
Problem: ‘mirror blogging’
Challenge: ‘bridge bloggers’ - understand who they are, levels of independence, and authenticity, just
like traditional media.- be conscience of risks of elevating profile of bloggers who might then
become the targets for state repression.- might too much attention hinder local development?
Future research
• Look at particular conflict zones, drill-down on issues, compare online and offline networks
• Dig more deeply and with additional context into extremist views online in the Middle East.
• Deeper textual analysis and human coding to understand framing in blogs.
• Do blogs adopt frames of mainstream, often state owned media in conflict zones, or adopt different frames when discussing conflict. Is it a truly alternative medium?
presentation forUS Institute for Peace
June 17, 2009
John Palfrey
Harvard University
John Kelly Morningside Analytics
Mapping the Arabic Blogosphere: Politics, Culture, and Dissent
Rob FarisHarvard University
Harvard University
Bruce Etling