Twitter Metrical Data Analysis Using R: Twiplomacy in the Outbreak of the War in Ukraine

Dimitrios Vagianos, Thomas Papatsas

2024

Abstract

It is common practice for Social Media to be used to inform and sway public opinion during contemporary conflicts. This study focuses on how Twitter (now known as X) was used with regards to the Russian-Ukrainian war during the first three months following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Thirty accounts in total—fifteen from each opposing side—were used to mine the data. The information released by these accounts throughout this monitoring period, along with the frequency of their postings, were collected and investigated in order to highlight the diverse approaches in this kind of cyberspace confrontation. In order to emphasize the key components of each party’s strategy and its efficacy, the interactivity networks of the accounts under discussion were constructed and visually analysed. Overall, this research attempt exploits a combination of effective data analysis approaches including word frequencies’ investigation and interactivity networks analysis based on the modularity community detection algorithm. By exclusively using Open Source software, the results visually highlight the degree of coordination and intensity of Twitter use of the Ukrainian side, a fact that is in full accordance with the comparatively more successful induced influence Ukraine achieved during this time frame, as this has been reported by the media generally.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Vagianos D. and Papatsas T. (2024). Twitter Metrical Data Analysis Using R: Twiplomacy in the Outbreak of the War in Ukraine. In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Data Science, Technology and Applications - Volume 1: DATA; ISBN 978-989-758-707-8, SciTePress, pages 494-504. DOI: 10.5220/0012812400003756

in Bibtex Style

@conference{data24,
author={Dimitrios Vagianos and Thomas Papatsas},
title={Twitter Metrical Data Analysis Using R: Twiplomacy in the Outbreak of the War in Ukraine},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Data Science, Technology and Applications - Volume 1: DATA},
year={2024},
pages={494-504},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0012812400003756},
isbn={978-989-758-707-8},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Data Science, Technology and Applications - Volume 1: DATA
TI - Twitter Metrical Data Analysis Using R: Twiplomacy in the Outbreak of the War in Ukraine
SN - 978-989-758-707-8
AU - Vagianos D.
AU - Papatsas T.
PY - 2024
SP - 494
EP - 504
DO - 10.5220/0012812400003756
PB - SciTePress