| Title |
Open source data reveals connection between online and on-street protest activity
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
EPJ Data Science, May 2016
|
| DOI | 10.1140/epjds/s13688-016-0081-5 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Hong Qi, Pedro Manrique, Daniela Johnson, Elvira Restrepo, Neil F Johnson |
| Abstract |
There is enormous interest in inferring features of human behavior in the real world from potential digital footprints created online - particularly at the collective level, where the sheer volume of online activity may indicate some changing mood within the population regarding a particular topic. Civil unrest is a prime example, involving the spontaneous appearance of large crowds of otherwise unrelated people on the street on a certain day. While indicators of brewing protests might be gleaned from individual online communications or account content (e.g. Twitter, Facebook) societal concerns regarding privacy can make such probing a politically delicate issue. Here we show that instead, a simple low-level indicator of civil unrest can be obtained from online data at the aggregate level through Google Trends or similar tools. Our study covers countries across Latin America during 2011-2014 in which diverse civil unrest events took place. In each case, we find that the combination of the volume and momentum of searches from Google Trends surrounding pairs of simple keywords, tailored for the specific cultural setting, provide good indicators of periods of civil unrest. This proof-of-concept study motivates the search for more geographically specific indicators based on geo-located searches at the urban level. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 62 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 14 | 23% |
| United Kingdom | 3 | 5% |
| Chile | 2 | 3% |
| Spain | 2 | 3% |
| Mexico | 2 | 3% |
| Turkey | 2 | 3% |
| Argentina | 1 | 2% |
| Italy | 1 | 2% |
| India | 1 | 2% |
| Other | 8 | 13% |
| Unknown | 26 | 42% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 41 | 66% |
| Scientists | 17 | 27% |
| Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 2 | 3% |
| Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 1 | 2% |
| Unknown | 1 | 2% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 56 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Spain | 1 | 2% |
| Netherlands | 1 | 2% |
| Portugal | 1 | 2% |
| Sri Lanka | 1 | 2% |
| Unknown | 52 | 93% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Master | 13 | 23% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 12 | 21% |
| Researcher | 7 | 13% |
| Student > Bachelor | 3 | 5% |
| Student > Doctoral Student | 3 | 5% |
| Other | 10 | 18% |
| Unknown | 8 | 14% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Social Sciences | 18 | 32% |
| Computer Science | 9 | 16% |
| Mathematics | 3 | 5% |
| Business, Management and Accounting | 3 | 5% |
| Economics, Econometrics and Finance | 2 | 4% |
| Other | 7 | 13% |
| Unknown | 14 | 25% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 48. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 05 September 2022.
All research outputs
#895,890
of 25,818,700 outputs
Outputs from EPJ Data Science
#68
of 460 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#15,391
of 313,325 outputs
Outputs of similar age from EPJ Data Science
#2
of 11 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,818,700 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 96th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 460 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 38.7. This one has done well, scoring higher than 85% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 11 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 81% of its contemporaries.