Mainstream and Alternative Narratives in the Wake of Gun Shootings

Lisa Grobelscheg, Lisa Grobelscheg, Ema Kušen, Mark Strembeck, Mark Strembeck, Mark Strembeck

2023

Abstract

In this paper, we explore narratives that emerge in the Twitter discourse during high stakes, low probability events. In particular, we analyze 7.4 million tweets related to four shooting events in the United States of America to identify differences that arise in the semantic structure and message diffusion of mainstream narratives on the one hand and alternative narratives on the other. Our findings indicate that alternative narratives introduce keyterms that have little to no connection to the respective shooting itself and that their diffusion patterns similar to those of mainstream narratives. Moreover, we found empirical evidence of alternative narratives, such as false flag accusations, that appear across different events and persist in the Twitter-sphere over an extensive period of time.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Grobelscheg L., Kušen E. and Strembeck M. (2023). Mainstream and Alternative Narratives in the Wake of Gun Shootings. In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Complexity, Future Information Systems and Risk - Volume 1: COMPLEXIS, ISBN 978-989-758-644-6, SciTePress, pages 17-26. DOI: 10.5220/0011972800003485

in Bibtex Style

@conference{complexis23,
author={Lisa Grobelscheg and Ema Kušen and Mark Strembeck},
title={Mainstream and Alternative Narratives in the Wake of Gun Shootings},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Complexity, Future Information Systems and Risk - Volume 1: COMPLEXIS,},
year={2023},
pages={17-26},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0011972800003485},
isbn={978-989-758-644-6},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Complexity, Future Information Systems and Risk - Volume 1: COMPLEXIS,
TI - Mainstream and Alternative Narratives in the Wake of Gun Shootings
SN - 978-989-758-644-6
AU - Grobelscheg L.
AU - Kušen E.
AU - Strembeck M.
PY - 2023
SP - 17
EP - 26
DO - 10.5220/0011972800003485
PB - SciTePress