Problem Description

Social media have become an integral part of everyday life. It is therefore not surprising to see an increasing number of conversations taking place on social networking sites such as Twitter. In comparison to Facebook, Twitter is a platform oriented toward individual statements, whereby the most diverse points of view lead to conversation. On the other hand, online argumentation platforms, such as SolAr, are concerned with presenting debates systematically and in a more structured way, according to the specifications of argumentation and debate. One of the largest collections of such online argumentation can be found in AIFdb. While social media enjoys a high popularity, systems of online argumentation have a rather quiet existence.

Therefore, it is questionable what differences exist between Twitter and systems of online argumentation in terms of content, structure, and beyond.

Goals

In order to be able to assess the similarities and differences between Twitter and systems of online argumentation, the following points must be considered:

  1. review of existing methods for comparing networks and data sets from the generally accepted literature
  2. testing and evaluation of the knowledge gained from point 1
  3. implementation of the knowledge gained from point 2
  4. conclusions of the methods and results obtained from point 3

Altogether, statements are to be reached about structural, content-related and additional characteristics of Twitter and systems of online argumentation.

Interest in social media, data analysis, programming and online argumentation

Kontakt

Marc Feger
Raum 25.12.O2.46 · marc.feger@uni-duesseldorf.de