A Framework for Analyzing Public Discussion on Twitter
Published:
A Framework for Analyzing Public Discussion on Twitter by Zubaida Abulaziz Jastania (2020)
Social media has significantly grown over the last decade. Twitter is one of the most popular social networks and means of online news that allows users to express their views and participate in a wide range of issues across the world. Expressed opinions on Twitter are based on diverse experiences that represent a broad set of valuable data. This data can be analyzed to gain insights into ongoing discussions. This study proposes a social network analysis based framework to understand the public discussions carried out on Twitter from a diverse set of perspectives. The framework provides not only a list of discussed topics, but also the influential persons discussing or disseminating these topics. The framework helps in identifying groups of people belonging to diverse areas like news, government, and human rights. The thesis evaluates the framework on public discussions about the initiative of women driving in Saudi Arabia (#SaudiWomenCanDrive). The framework analyzed more than two million tweets using methods from social network analysis. Most influential people, topics discussed, and groups of people engaged in this discussion are identified using the proposed framework.