✨New paper out at IJoC✨ Politicization and Right-Wing Normalization on YouTube: A Topic-Based Analysis of the “Alternative Influence Network” With @cschwem2er.bsky.social & Annett Heft: We analyze topics featured in transcripts from 51,526 videos. ijoc.org/index.php/ij... 🧵⤵️ - ThreadSky

curdknupfer.bsky.social • 473 days ago

✨New paper out at IJoC✨
Politicization and Right-Wing Normalization on YouTube: A Topic-Based Analysis of the “Alternative Influence Network”
With @cschwem2er.bsky.social & Annett Heft:
We analyze topics featured in transcripts from 51,526 videos. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/20369
🧵⤵️

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lindabos.bsky.social•472 days ago

Very interesting, Curd!

curdknupfer.bsky.social•472 days ago

Thanks Linda! We hope it's not completely outdated. Took a while to get this published.
But the dataset is so rich and many of these YT channels are extremely influential. We were honestly also somewhat surprised at how well our modeling worked for the huge amount of gathered auto-captions!

curdknupfer.bsky.social•473 days ago

We draw on Becca Lewis’ classification of YT's "reactionary right.”
https://datasociety.net/library/alternative-influence/
Spanning almost 10 years, our corpus includes pivotal moments in right-wing internet discourse: Gamergate, the 2016 election, the rise of the “alt-right” & MAGA meme wars...

curdknupfer.bsky.social•473 days ago

Previous studies tend to look at algorithmic recommendations, audiences, or direct links between channels. Adding to this, our STM approach centers on the information that connect these content providers. We show how these converge over time, to form content-based networks.
...

curdknupfer.bsky.social•473 days ago

We distinguish between political and cultural categories, showing that these often appear in close proximity, especially in regard to identity-based topics. Furthermore, we observe a decline of cultural topics and an increase of political ones among this network.
...

curdknupfer.bsky.social•473 days ago

We then examine topics in their function as connective ties, mapping out a content-based network. In highlighting more extreme channels that have since been banned from YT, we observe that these do not form a distinct cluster but are well-integrated into the larger network.
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curdknupfer.bsky.social•473 days ago

We conclude that ideological influencer channels must be understood as collectively giving shape to an informational ecosystem, converging on political content & forming topic-bound networks that, in turn, might give rise to other forms of connectivity.
...

curdknupfer.bsky.social•473 days ago

In the time since Carsten, Annett, & I started working on this paper at the Weizenbaum Institute, children were born, jobs were changed, & Pandemics occurred. I am so grateful to my co-authors for sticking with it. Additional thanks to Katharina Bauer & our reviewers!
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