Social Networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc have become an important part of our
day-to-day lives. Apart from providing a platform for socializing with others, they have also
become a medium for relaying and obtaining important information. All major real-life events
can be found on social media within seconds of their occurrence. Such is the impact of social
media that if an earthquake occurs, people open their social network accounts to confirm that
such an event has happened instead of watching the news or reading newspapers.
Social media provides a huge amount of meaningful data which can be analyzed to make
interesting inferences. These inferences can be used to understand various things like how
a particular event has affected the public, most affected locations etc. Social media is now
seen as an effective medium to relay information to a large number of people in seconds and
is also used for problem-solving.
day-to-day lives. Apart from providing a platform for socializing with others, they have also
become a medium for relaying and obtaining important information. All major real-life events
can be found on social media within seconds of their occurrence. Such is the impact of social
media that if an earthquake occurs, people open their social network accounts to confirm that
such an event has happened instead of watching the news or reading newspapers.
Social media provides a huge amount of meaningful data which can be analyzed to make
interesting inferences. These inferences can be used to understand various things like how
a particular event has affected the public, most affected locations etc. Social media is now
seen as an effective medium to relay information to a large number of people in seconds and
is also used for problem-solving.
IIn 2009, US Airways flight 1549 crashed in New York's Hudson River. The image given
below appeared on Twitter just 4 minutes after the crash. Social media was used for the first
time to request immediate help from government organizations.
below appeared on Twitter just 4 minutes after the crash. Social media was used for the first
time to request immediate help from government organizations.
Source:https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/4269765/New-York-plane-crash-Twitter-breaks-the-news-
again.html
again.html
Twitter has specifically become the most important social network to know what is happening
around the world. A metadata tag called “hashtag” is usually associated to tweet regarding a
particular event. News related to elections, sports, celebrities or any other domain instantly
start trending on Twitter and is open to the public. To obtain and use information of twitter, one
can use Twitter API to collect tweets regarding a particular search query and perform various
data analyzing techniques on it. The example given below demonstrates how to do social
information retrieval.
around the world. A metadata tag called “hashtag” is usually associated to tweet regarding a
particular event. News related to elections, sports, celebrities or any other domain instantly
start trending on Twitter and is open to the public. To obtain and use information of twitter, one
can use Twitter API to collect tweets regarding a particular search query and perform various
data analyzing techniques on it. The example given below demonstrates how to do social
information retrieval.
To collect tweets for a particular hashtag, say # FakeNews, I wrote the following snippet of
code.
code.
Source : PSOSM Assignment 1, Monsoon semester, 2017
It will collect 10 k recent tweets with #FakeNews in the English language from all over the
world using twitter API. Once the dataset is collected, the following analysis can be done-
world using twitter API. Once the dataset is collected, the following analysis can be done-
- Make a histogram of top 20 words used in tweets after stopwords removal
- Plot a pie chart to analyze the percentage of tweets from each country
- Plot a graph of the number of tweets vs time
- Analyze kind of photos, videos and links shared
By plotting most frequently used words with #FakeNews, one can find out the topics on which
people are spreading fake news. It can be seen from the histogram that most of the fake news
is related to US president Donald Trump.
people are spreading fake news. It can be seen from the histogram that most of the fake news
is related to US president Donald Trump.
Source : PSOSM Assignment 1, Monsoon semester, 2017
Another interesting thing to find out is the location from where these fake news originate.
Twitter tweets have geolocation tags in them which can let us find the longitude and latitude
of the place from where the tweet came. The pie chart given below shows the distribution of
fake news across all countries.
Twitter tweets have geolocation tags in them which can let us find the longitude and latitude
of the place from where the tweet came. The pie chart given below shows the distribution of
fake news across all countries.
Source : PSOSM Assignment 1, Monsoon semester, 2017
We can see that most of the fake news tweets come from the US. Similarly, other interesting
observations can be made.
Since social media has the power to influence a large number of people, collecting data from
social media and analyzing it can give interesting insights. Right now, not much importance
has been given to information retrieval using social media. Currently, data generated by
social networks is much more than the data collected by prominent search engines. In the near
future, the data generated by online social networks is only going to increase. I believe the
next major change in information retrieval systems is going to be the integration of social
networks with IR systems. This is technically called Social Information retrieval (SIR).
social media and analyzing it can give interesting insights. Right now, not much importance
has been given to information retrieval using social media. Currently, data generated by
social networks is much more than the data collected by prominent search engines. In the near
future, the data generated by online social networks is only going to increase. I believe the
next major change in information retrieval systems is going to be the integration of social
networks with IR systems. This is technically called Social Information retrieval (SIR).
Search engines can be enhanced to include more data from social networks in real time and
produce an interesting analysis which can have various uses. For example, during elections,
opinions of public from various social media platform can be extracted by search engines to
give a combined public review. SIR can also be used to capture criminals and terrorists.
Several terrorist organizations use Twitter to recruit people due to its mass reach. Location of
any tweet containing any term related to terrorist organizations can be found with their location.
Law enforcement is increasingly using social media information to solve cases.
produce an interesting analysis which can have various uses. For example, during elections,
opinions of public from various social media platform can be extracted by search engines to
give a combined public review. SIR can also be used to capture criminals and terrorists.
Several terrorist organizations use Twitter to recruit people due to its mass reach. Location of
any tweet containing any term related to terrorist organizations can be found with their location.
Law enforcement is increasingly using social media information to solve cases.
Thus, Online social networks (OSN) provide an abundance of useful information depicting
human relationships, opinions, suggestions etc. Having a search engine specifically for social
media generated information will be interesting to see.
human relationships, opinions, suggestions etc. Having a search engine specifically for social
media generated information will be interesting to see.
Sources :
1)https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/4269765/New-York-plane-crash-Twitter-
breaks-the-news-again.html
breaks-the-news-again.html
2)PSOSM Assignment 1, Monsoon semester, 2017
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