Presentation. Conference Twitter for Research. 24 Avril. Lyon, France. http://www.conftwitter2015.org/program.html#res

1. Multiple points of view
in #VemPraRua ReTweets:
the perspectival method of network analysis
Prof. Dr. Fabio Malini
Ms. Jean Medeiros
Ms. Marianne Malini
Ms. Priscilla Calmon
Labic | Federal University of Espirito Santo (UFES) | Brazil
http://labic.net

2. introduction
• Points of view, or perspectives,
are principles, ideas, worldviews;
• They are formed in a flow of
associations and dissociations amongst
themselves.
• Points of view are, therefore, effects
on the subjects. (Deleuze, 1976);

3. • The points of view in the RTs networks
present themselves as clusters, that
separately reveals, each one, a
dissimilar collection of texts, images,
social bonds and individual threads.
• Perspectival Method of Retweets
Network Analysis demonstrates that
there are different “social layers” in RTs
networks.
introduction

4. • In RTs network, the perspectives are topological,
thus, they have a certain position in its layout.
• There are proximity positions or distance
positions, which stands for opositions, conflicts,
disputes, alliances and social cooperations.
introduction

5. introduction
• Also, the perspectives in RTs
networks are temporal.
• Moments are points of views.
And moments express different
dynamics of the phenomena. The
entire network is therefore a
narrative about an event on Twitter.

6. introduction
• Also, the perspectives in RTs
networks are temporal.
• Moments are points of views.
And moments express different
dynamics of the phenomena. The
entire network is therefore a
narrative about an event on Twitter.

7. introduction
• Also, the perspectives in RTs
networks are temporal.
• Moments are points of views.
And moments express different
dynamics of the phenomena. The
entire network is therefore a
narrative about an event on Twitter.

8. tweets between
June 15th 2013 and May 17th 2014
#VemPraRua
the topological and temporal points of view
Method and Results

9. Data processing: table of tweets to graphs.
Numbers: about 675.000 tweets, from which 178.000
are ReTweets and involved 58.000 different profiles.
Data mining: tweets collection was made
through Twitter’s Search and Streaming APIs.
method

10. RTs.graphml;
method
Gephi: a tool to manipulate
complex networks (graphs);
Metrics: Average Weighted Degree,
Modularity and ForceAtlas2;
Clusters: strongly connected
nodes in a network.

11. Exporting the username of the
profiles present in each cluster.
Processing the cluster through
metrics, like:
• tweets per day;
• users per day;
• most frequent words;
• most frequent hashtags;
• most active users;
• most popular tweets;
• tweets containing links.method

12. From the results, it’s elaborated:
Discourse analysis in order to verify
textual linguistic patterns;
Image collection (from RTs links) to be
plotted on Image Plot.
Temporal perspectives through
topic modeling.
method

13. #VemPraRua
The topological points of view
RESULTS

14. Results:
Topological
perspectives
• The clusters in a
retweets network are
composed of independent
interaction layers;
• Superimposed, these layers
produce a network
totality effect; Rede de Retweets
do #VemPraRua.
15/6 a 30/10/13.

15. Cluster 1: Activism
perspective
• #VemPraRua is a political
occupation of the streets with
multiple social claims. RTs
from this point of view
prioritizes images of the
occupation, riots, livestreams,
memes portraying outrages
and portraits of the largest
marches throughout Brazil.

16. Cluster 1: Activism
perspective
• “Largo do Batata”, “Avenida
paulista” – venues of the
protests.
• “Street”, “now”, “violence”,
“choque”, “taken streets”,
“posters”, “protest” = lexicon
of the activists and social
convocation.

17. Cluster 2: The hacker
perspective
• #VemPraRua is a movement which
demands more transparency from
Administrations. This is the
perspective from the Anonymous
network.

18. Cluster 2: The hacker
perspective
Words like “revolution”, “corruption” and
“networks” are the most present in this
perspective. The Anonymous network would
be the most responsible profiles to spread
faster the content from the streets.
Most retweeted profiles:
@anonymousBrasil, @AnonBrNews,
@LulzSecBrazil, @AnonymousBr4sil,
@PlanoAnonBr.
Most shared link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5iSn76I
2xs

19. Cluster 3: The mediatic
celebration perspective
#VemPraRua is a hype act, which
promotes a change in social mentality.
It is portrayed by the celebrities’
euphoria.

20. Cluster 3: The mediatic
celebration perspective
Words like “Rio”, “Street”, “SP”, “Park”,
“Candelária”, show that these profiles are well
connected to the strees, they also share
content from the protests, like images and
texts provided by the activist network.
Most retweeted profiles:
@FePaesLeme, @bgagliasso,
@BruMArquezine, @HugoGloss e
@MarceloTas
Most shared link:
http://t.co/QbzC4waKU3

21. #VemPraRua
The temporal points of view
Results

22. Sunday 16/06/2013 07:01 13:00

23. Sunday 16/06/2013 13:00 19:00

24. Sunday 16/06/2013 19:00 23:59

25. Monday 17/06/2013 00:00 07:00

26. Monday 17/06/2013 07:00 13:00

27. Monday 17/06/2013 13:00 19:00

28. Monday 17/06/2013 19:01 00:00

29. Until 18:00, when the protests
arise in Brazil, the hashtag
#VemPraRua is viral just because
of new profiles linked to the social
movements.
CONCLUSION from the temporal
perspectives of #VemPraRua:

30. Rede de Retweets
do #VemPraRua.
15/6 a 30/10/13.
Results: Topological
perspectives
• It is important to highlight that
profiles from the press and
from politics, either from the
Executive Power or from
the National
Parliament, many whom are
active users on Twitter, did not
use the #VemPraRua hashtag.

31. • For every tweet, a topic was assigned.
• This analysis allowed the discovery of 11 major outrage themes in
Brazil’s protests:
• Urban Mobility;
• Violence and Public Safety;
• Education;
• Health;
• Street Occupancy and Online
Mobilization;
• Political Reform;
• Dilma Administration Evaluation;
• Rio de Janeiro Administration
Evaluation;
• World Cup Public Expenditure;
• Minorities Rights;
• Criticism directed at Media.
Results: Temporal perspectives

32. Results: Temporal perspectives

33. • The discovery of temporal perspectives helps to understand the
duration of a particular network.
• June 17th: The major theme was violence, on account of the severe
police repression perpetrated against activists over the entire country.
• June 20th: about 50% of tweets were related to a wish for political
reform in Brazil.
Results: Temporal perspectives

34. • In April 2014, when the #VemPraRua hashtag no longer had a tweet
volume similar to June 2013, the major thematic perspectives
changes:
• Dilma Rousseff Administration Evaluation (25%);
• Violence Against Protesters (40%, as the main topic).
Results: Temporal perspectives

35. Conclusions
• The spatial and topological
perspective method employed to
#VemPraRua has demonstrated to be an
important alternative available to studies in the
Social Network Analysis field (SNA).
• Networks on Twitter are not a “whole”, but
parts, side by side
• “everything is people, ‘little people’, people inside
people” (Viveiros de Castro, 2007, p.102)

36. • Understanding political networks
betamovements (as they are in a state of
continuous change);
• Readaptation to any other global movements
analysis.
Conclusions

37. References
DELEUZE, Gilles. Proust et les signes. Paris: Presses Universitaires de
France, 1976
VIVEIROS DE CASTRO, Eduardo. Filiação intensiva e Aliança
Demoníaca. Revista Novos Estudos Cebrap. São Paulo: 2007, v.77, p.91-
126
MALINI, F.; MEDEIROS, J.; REGATTIERI, L.The use of modularity
algorithms as part of the conceptualization of the perspectival form in
large networks. Datawiz, Santiago, Chile. 2014.

38. Thank you! Questions?
jeanmrmedeiros@gmail.com
fabiomalini@gmail.com
contato@labic.net