Transnational competitive media events in social media - Analysis of public communication and predictive power

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Christoph Neuberger; Professor Dr. Stefan Stieglitz
• Subject Area: Communication Sciences
• Term: from 2012 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 210149318

Based on the project an interdisciplinary cooperation of communication science (KW) and Computer Science (INF) has been initiated. The involved researchers investigated the dynamics of topics in public communication in the Internet by using and combining automated and manual methods. "Topic dynamics" refers to the diffusion and editing of topics. The Internet creates new conditions for this topic dynamics and has a higher transparency than traditional public media, which simplifies the empirical analysis. Patterns of topic dynamics were first examined using the data collected from the microblogging service Twitter (WP 1-6), which is suitable for the analysis for different technical and structural reasons. Communication about individual topics has been collected by using keyword lists. Based on these data automated as well as manual analyses have been conducted. During Project Phase 2 (WP 7 and 8) the observation area has been extended to professional journalistic sites, allowing the researchers to analyse references and spill-over effects between both platforms.In the context of the requested continuation of the project (phase 3, WP 9-13) ist is planned to extend the research into two directions: First, the observation will be expanded on Facebook and blogs. Second, public communication about transnational, periodic competitive events in three social subsystems will be analyzed. Based on the data, predictive models will be developed for these events.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants