After Woolwich: Analyzing Open Source Communications to Understand the Interactive and Multi-polar Dynamics of the Arc of Conflict

Abstract

This article is based upon a case study of the 2013 murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby in Woolwich, London. It shows how analysis of open source communications data collected via social media platforms can illuminate the inter-and intra-community conlict dynamics arising in the aftermath of such events. Framed by Collins' recent theoretical work on the escalatory and de-escalatory forces in conlict situations, the empirical analysis brings to the fore some new insights about the 'arc of conlict'. These frame a conceptual accent upon the interactive sequences of mobilization and counter-mobilization occurring in the moves towards group-based conlicts, and the importance of understanding the multi-polar nature of these involvements.

Towards an Ethical Framework for Publishing Twitter Data in Social Research: Taking into Account Users’ Views, Online Context and Algorithmic Estimation

“…Researchers across the social sciences are routinely harvesting Twitter data and publishing identifiable content of communications and the computed classifications of algorithms without consent. For example, Awan (2014) , Innes et al (2016) and Roberts et al (2017) published highly sensitive Twitter content without any valid attempt to protect the privacy or, to the best of our knowledge, to gain the informed consent of users. 1 These and other papers fail to include a single mention of the ethics of conducting social media research, leaving open the questions whether these researchers had effectively engaged with existing learned society guidelines or the emerging literature in this area.…”

Sentinel: A Codesigned Platform for Semantic Enrichment of Social Media Streams

“…Analysis of this data set, which totaled over 35 M tweets at the end of the collection period, is still ongoing. Social science findings to date have been reported in [25]- [27]. The aftermath of the crime, social media reports appeared across the U.K. concerning hate crimes targeted toward individuals and religious buildings.…”

“…The aftermath of the crime, social media reports appeared across the U.K. concerning hate crimes targeted toward individuals and religious buildings. Countering the general picture of negative sentiment, one event soon after the murder was striking for its positive tone: members of a local mosque in the city of York had engaged with right-wing marchers with offers of tea and a friendly game of football [26], [27]. Many U.K. media outlets covered the story 2 and it was reiterated by commentators seeking to calm tensions.…”

“…Going further, the study in [25] draws on the data collected and analyzed via Sentinel to present a model of social reaction in the aftermath of terrorist attacks. A subsequent study [27] validated a model of social conflict using the data set and Sentinel tools. 4) Discussion: One key issue that emerges from this paper is the need to obtain ground truth for events reported on social media, such as the York Mosque incident.…”

Meta-Terrorism: Identifying Linguistic Patterns in Public Discourse After an Attack

“…One of the best-known incidents that has been studied for detecting and explaining social behavior patterns of people through time is the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby in Woolwich, London in 2013. Researchers saw an opportunity for testing an experimental state-of-the-art program called Sentinel that has been supported by the European Commission [2,3]. Data was collected from social media and filtered by a series of "channels" using relevant search terms.…”