Understanding Society Is there a Social-Media Fueled Protest Style? An Analysis From #jan25 to #geziparki When I tell people I study social media, politics and social movements, I often get a version of the question: “But there were protests before Facebook?” Sure, I say, but how did people hear about it? Word-of-mouth is, of course, one way but [in the modern era] [and especially in repressive settings] it’s almost never never fast enough to spread protest of news quickly enough–remember, a political protest is a strategic game with multiple actors including a state which often wants to shut them down. Too slow diffusion of information, and your people will get arrested faster than they can show up at all. History of modern revolutions is always mixed up with the history and the structure of the communicative infrastructure of technology. That is why the speed of the initial response curve is crucial to whether a protest will survive or not. Turkey, my home country, is known for big demonstrations. Turkey has has a variety of large demonstrations over the years. That is, until yesterday.
Graphic Sociology Cairo, Alberto. (2013) The Functional Art: An introduction to information graphics and visualization. Berkeley: New Riders, a division of Pearson. Overview A functional art is a book in divided into four parts, but really it is easier to understand as only two parts. The first part is a sustained and convincingly argument that information graphics and data visualizations are technologies, not art, and that there are good reasons to follow certain guiding principles when reading and designing them. It is written by Alberto Cairo, a professor of journalism at the University of Miami an information graphics journalist who has had the not always pleasant experience of trying to apply functional rules in organizational structures that occasionally prefer formal rules. The second part of the book is a series of interviews with journalists, designers, and artists about graphics and the work required to make good ones. What does this book do well? Diversity What doesn’t this book do well? Summary
Real-World Economics Review Blog Mobilising on Twitter, Turkish protesters risk arrest Angered by the lack of coverage of Turkey's violent crisis in the country's mainstream media, Turks are mobilising via Twitter and Facebook, prompting police to arrest users they accuse of spreading subversion. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has dismissed Twitter as a "troublemaker" that "terrorises society", ranking it along with the "extremists" he blames for the days of protests against his rule. But observers say Turks are naturally turning to online social media since even private national broadcasters and newspapers are giving proportionally little airtime and column inches to the protests. In response the authorities, long accused of repressing journalists, now appear to be targeting ordinary web users as well. Officers arrested at least 25 people on Wednesday in the western city of Izmir, accusing them of tweeting "misinformation" -- news that was in fact reported by local television channels. "Have they already banned freedom of opinion and I have not heard about it?"
Social Science Statistics Blog 28 April 2013 App Stats: Roberts, Stewart, and Tingley on "Topic models for open ended survey responses with applications to experiments" We hope you can join us this Wednesday, May 1, 2013 for the Applied Statistics Workshop. Molly Roberts, Brandon Stewart, and Dustin Tingley, all from the Department of Government at Harvard University, will give a presentation entitled "Topic models for open ended survey responses with applications to experiments". "Topic models for open ended survey responses with applications to experiments" Molly Roberts, Brandon Stewart, and Dustin Tingley Government Department, Harvard University CGIS K354 (1737 Cambridge St.) Abstract: Despite broad use of surveys and survey experiments by political science, the vast majority of survey analysis deals with responses to options along a scale or from pre-established categories. Posted by Konstantin Kashin at 11:25 PM | Comments (2) 22 April 2013 App Stats: Vadhan on "Privacy Tools for Sharing Research Data"
Thought Catalog Istanbul : les Indignés de Taksim Photo -- Laurène Perrussel-Morin Chaque jour, depuis 70 ans, le Gezi Park de Taksim, sur la rive européenne d’Istanbul, accueille des personnes âgées venues respirer l’air frais, des familles qui se promènent, et des vendeurs ambulants de thé et de simits. Pourtant, depuis quelques mois, certains sont inquiets : un plan d’urbanisation prévoit le déracinement de certains des 600 arbres qui constituent le poumon de la ville. Des baraques militaires ottomanes devraient être reconstituées à cet emplacement. La construction d’un centre culturel et d’un centre commercial a également été annoncée. Le 27 mai, alors que les habitués du parc laissaient la place aux SDF et aux chats errants pour la nuit, les militants de l’Association de protection et d’embellissement du Gezi Park qui rentraient de leur réunion hebdomadaire ont remarqué qu’un bulldozer avait détruit une partie du mur d’enceinte du parc. Une destruction illégale Le Gezi Park, poumon de la ville Un rassemblement citoyen
This Week in Sociology