[논문 리뷰] Social Media, News and Political Information during the US Election: Was Polarizing Content Concentrated in Swing States?

Philip N. Howard, Bence Kollányi외 2명|arXiv (Cornell University)|2018. 02. 10.

Social Media and Politics참고 문헌 7인용 수 81

한 줄 요약

이 데이터 메모는 2016년 미국 선거를 둘러싼 극단적 정치 콘텐츠의 트위터 공유를 분석하여, 허위 정보와 극단적 콘텐츠가 전국적으로 더 널리 퍼졌지만 특정 주에서 더 높은 수준을 보였고, 표본 주에서는 인구 비중으로 가중했을 때 평균 허위정보가 더 높았다.

ABSTRACT

US voters shared large volumes of polarizing political news and information in the form of links to content from Russian, WikiLeaks and junk news sources. Was this low quality political information distributed evenly around the country, or concentrated in swing states and particular parts of the country? In this data memo we apply a tested dictionary of sources about political news and information being shared over Twitter over a ten day period around the 2016 Presidential Election. Using self-reported location information, we place a third of users by state and create a simple index for the distribution of polarizing content around the country. We find that (1) nationally, Twitter users got more misinformation, polarizing and conspiratorial content than professionally produced news. (2) Users in some states, however, shared more polarizing political news and information than users in other states. (3) Average levels of misinformation were higher in swing states than in uncontested states, even when weighted for the relative size of the user population in each state. We conclude with some observations about the impact of strategically disseminated polarizing information on public life.

연구 동기 및 목표

• Assess whether polarizing political content during the 2016 U.S. election was concentrated in swing states versus other regions.
• Quantify the distribution of polarizing content (misinformation, conspiracy, polarizing news) across U.S. states using Twitter data.
• Compare national vs. state-level patterns in the diffusion of low-quality political information.

제안 방법

• Apply a tested dictionary of political news sources to Twitter data collected over a ten-day window around the 2016 election.
• Use self-reported location to assign users to states and construct a state-level distribution index for polarizing content.
• Compute and compare nationwide and state-level levels of misinformation, polarizing, and conspiratorial content.
• Weight state results by relative user population to assess differences in swing versus uncontested states.

실험 결과

연구 질문

• RQ1 Is polarizing political content on Twitter concentrated in swing states during the 2016 U.S. election, or evenly distributed nationwide?
• RQ2 How do levels of misinformation, polarizing content, and conspiratorial content compare nationally versus by state?
• RQ3 Do swing states exhibit higher average misinformation than uncontested states when adjusting for population size?

주요 결과

• Nationally, Twitter users shared more misinformation, polarizing content, and conspiratorial content than professional news.
• Some states showed higher shares of polarizing political news and information than others.
• Average levels of misinformation were higher in swing states than in uncontested states when weighted for state population.