TITLE:
Visualizing Clashes and Alliances in Social Networks of Political Discussions
AUTHORS:
Rafael Lage Tavares, Mariano Pimentel, Renata Mendes de Araujo
KEYWORDS:
Social Network Visualization; Online Political Discussion; Electronic Participation
JOURNAL NAME:
Social Networking,
Vol.3 No.2,
February
27,
2014
ABSTRACT: Political discussions are characterized by conflicts of interest, and decisions are made based on negotiations. In general, participants need to reinforce their opinions and influence other participants. In this context, it is important to know how allies and opponents are positioned, in order to understand the discussion dynamics and plan adequate actions. This paper suggests the use of social network visualizations to explicit oppositions and alliances in order to support the understanding and following of political discussions. A system which supports these visualizations was built. An experiment performed to test the proposed visualizations showed to which extent they can be more efficient in identifying information about clashes and alliances than an online discussion system can.