Week 8

Computational Sociology

Christopher Barrie

Introduction

  1. Housekeeping
  2. Violence and Protest

Introduction: Violence and Protest

Introduction: Violence and Protest

So… we’re all getting more peaceful, right?

So… we’re all getting more peaceful, right?

But what’s the counterfactual?

And how do we test this?

One hypothesis

Despite overall downward trend, social media/Internet has caused more violence than we otherwise would have seen.

Is this a claim people are making?

Is this a claim people are making?

Why would social media promote violence?

<Go to chalkboard>

Why would social media promote protest?

<Go to chalkboard>

Why would social media promote violence?

Answers from the literature:

  • Coordination (PIERSKALLA and HOLLENBACH (2013a))
  • Cohesion (Little (2016) and Shirky 2008)
  • Political communication–elites and others (Cao, Lindo, and Zhong (2022))

Why would social media promote violence?

Answers from the literature:

  • Coordination

    • Collective action problems when organizing violence

      • Aids in monitoring free-riding

      • Aids tactical coordination

  • Cohesion
  • Political communication (elites or others?)

Why would social media promote violence?

Answers from the literature:

  • Coordination
  • Cohesion

    • Increased communication aids in formation of group identity

    • Increased communication aids in maintenance of loyalty

  • Political communication (elites or others?)

Why would social media promote violence?

Answers from the literature:

  • Coordination
  • Cohesion
  • Political communication (elites or others?)

    • Compare mass media persuasion to decentralized influence

    • Compare legacy news media to real-time dissemination of videos and images

Why would social media promote protest?

Answers from the literature:

  • Information (Steinert-Threlkeld (2017) Bennett and Segerberg (2013))

  • Coordination (Little (2016))

  • Moralization (Mooijman et al. (2018))

Why would social media promote protest?

Answers from the literature:

  • Information

    • Information more readily available on extra-institutional forms of political behaviour

    • Information more readily available on the activities of governments and other actors

  • Coordination

Why would social media promote protest?

Answers from the literature:

  • Information

  • Coordination

    • We can more easily–and horizontally–coordinate with fellow protestors at once and without need for physical proximity

    • We can more easily observe what others are doing around us

  • Moralization

Why would social media promote protest?

Answers from the literature:

  • Information

  • Coordination

  • Moralization

    • Platform affordances mean moralizing rhetoric receives more engagement

How have we studied this so far? PIERSKALLA and HOLLENBACH (2013b)

How have we studied this so far? PIERSKALLA and HOLLENBACH (2013b)

How have we studied this so far? PIERSKALLA and HOLLENBACH (2013b)

How have we studied this so far? PAN and SIEGEL (2019)

How have we studied this so far? PAN and SIEGEL (2019)

How have we studied this so far? PAN and SIEGEL (2019)

How have we studied this so far? Steinert-Threlkeld (2017)

How have we studied this so far? Steinert-Threlkeld (2017)

How have we studied this so far? Steinert-Threlkeld (2017)

A note on computational thinking

This week:

  1. Using new media to derive proxies of coordination behaviour otherwise unmeasurable using traditional data sources
  2. Combining empirical documentary material with digital traces to understand the response to political repression

References

Bennett, W. Lance, and Alexandra Segerberg. 2013. The Logic of Connective Action: Digital Media and the Personalization of Contentious Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139198752.
Cao, Andy, Jason Lindo, and Jiee Zhong. 2022. “Can Social Media Rhetoric Incite Hate Incidents? Evidence from Trump’s "Chinese Virus" Tweets.” https://doi.org/10.3386/w30588.
Little, Andrew T. 2016. “Communication Technology and Protest.” The Journal of Politics 78 (1): 152–66. https://doi.org/10.1086/683187.
Mooijman, Marlon, Joe Hoover, Ying Lin, Heng Ji, and Morteza Dehghani. 2018. “Moralization in Social Networks and the Emergence of Violence During Protests.” Nature Human Behaviour 2 (6): 389–96. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-018-0353-0.
PAN, JENNIFER, and ALEXANDRA A. SIEGEL. 2019. “How Saudi Crackdowns Fail to Silence Online Dissent.” American Political Science Review 114 (1): 109–25. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003055419000650.
PIERSKALLA, JAN H., and FLORIAN M. HOLLENBACH. 2013b. “Technology and Collective Action: The Effect of Cell Phone Coverage on Political Violence in Africa.” American Political Science Review 107 (2): 207–24. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003055413000075.
———. 2013a. “Technology and Collective Action: The Effect of Cell Phone Coverage on Political Violence in Africa.” American Political Science Review 107 (2): 207–24. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003055413000075.
Steinert-Threlkeld, Zachary C. 2017. “Spontaneous Collective Action: Peripheral Mobilization During the Arab Spring.” Am. Polit. Sci. Rev. 111 (2): 379403.