Social media has become central to the public's response to terrorism. From the transmission of breaking news, to the offering of social support, to the dissemination of radical, hateful messages, people increasingly turn to social media to both share and gain understandings of terrorist events. This project utilizes the social media data to investigate the reactions of individuals located in Paris during the November 2015 attacks. It analyzes both their immediate social and emotional reactions to the attacks as well as longer-term changes in their communication behavior. The investigation focuses on three questions. First, in immediate response to the attacks, how, and how effectively, did improvised logistical communications, such as the use of the #PorteOuverte hashtag offering shelter to strangers, emerge in the chaotic and emotional context of the attack aftermath. Second, what effect did attention by individuals to different aspects of the attack, such as particular news stories, the role of different ethnic groups, or other salient aspects of social media discussion after the attacks influence their longer term attitudes toward the threat of terrorism. Third, how and to what extent did government authorities and professional news outlets sway this public attention both broadly and for specific social communities. This research outcome will both improve responses to specific terrorist attacks as well as enhance public understanding of the specific means through which terrorism wields social influence.
The project advances the theoretical study of collective sensemaking, understood here as the emergent, communal attempt to cognitively understand, emotionally accept, and logistically respond to surprising, disruptive events. The project addresses collective sensemaking in a novel way by focusing on both temporal and subject based differences. Analysis will focus on both short-term and longer-term communication behavioral changes, such as changes in the expression of sentiment or of reference to specific URLs. Methodological issues such as selection bias and the measurement of different sensemaking behaviors will be addressed by leveraging text mining, network science methods and techniques, and communication theories of social media. In so doing, the project will greatly improved understanding of both the immediate and longer-term behavioral responses of citizens to a terrorist attack.
