Accession Number:

ADA582053

Title:

Developing Cultural Analysis and Sociological Network Theory for Understanding Virtual Communities and Their Intrinsic Relationships on the Web

Descriptive Note:

Final rept. 15 Apr 2009-30 Nov 2011

Corporate Author:

HAWAII UNIV HONOLULU DEPT OF SOCIOLOGY

Personal Author(s):

• Lyons, Joseph B.

Report Date:

2012-09-12

Pagination or Media Count:

4.0

Abstract:

The current research examined the use of social media as a realistic predictor of collective behavior. Despite the ubiquity of social media and their relatively intuitive impact on emergent, collective behavior, little is known about the validity of social media as an actual cue of true perceptions and behavior among humans. In other words, the relationship between online perceptions and actual perceptions identified through other means such as questionnaires and other polling techniques is unclear as is the link between online behavior and behavior in support or against social movements. The current research established data mining techniques to code sentiment in social media and empirically juxtaposed online behavior with temporal-based event on the ground during the Arab Spring.

Descriptors:

• *ONLINE COMMUNITIES
• DATA MINING
• INTERNET
• MIDDLE EAST
• PERCEPTION
• SOCIOLOGY

Subject Categories:

• Information Science
• Sociology and Law

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE