Title
Embassies burning: toward a near-real-time assessment of social media using geo-temporal dynamic network analytics.
Abstract
Effective crisis response requires rapid assessment of a situation in order to form actionable plans. Social media and traditional media are critical to this assessment. This paper describes a rapid ethnographic approach for extracting information from Twitter and news media and then assessing that information using dynamic network analysis techniques. Text mining high-dimensional network analytics and visualization are combined to provide an integrated approach to assessing large dynamic networks. This approach was used as the Benghazi consulate and the Egyptian embassy were attacked in 2012. This near-real-time assessment was set against a backdrop of ongoing data collection associated with the Arab Spring countries. This ongoing collection provided a baseline for Libya and Egypt against which the new data could be assessed. Herein, the outcome of that near-real-time assessment, the tools used, the lessons learned, and the results discovered are described. The same approach was used in other crisis events including SuperStorm Sandy, the Kenyan elections, from which examples are also drawn. We find that to be effective such analytics require the use of multiple media, deep dives into specific secondary issues, and a high-level assessment of not just who is doing what, but who is providing what information. Finally, we show the criticality of baseline data for interpreting the behavior during a crisis.
Year
DOI
Venue
2014
10.1007/s13278-014-0195-3
Social Netw. Analys. Mining
Keywords
Field
DocType
Social media, Dynamic network analysis, Social change, Social geography, Social network analysis, Big data
Data science,Dynamic network analysis,Data collection,World Wide Web,Social media,Visualization,Computer science,Social network analysis,News media,Analytics,Big data
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
4
1
1869-5469
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
3
0.37
9
Authors
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Kathleen M. Carley12507270.10
Jürgen Pfeffer234626.57
Fred Morstatter352831.21
Huan Liu412695741.34