The topology of a discussion: the #occupy case

Introduction: We analyse a large sample of the Twitter activity that developed around the social movement 'Occupy Wall Street', to study the complex interactions between the human communication activity and the semantic content of a debate. Methods: We use a network approach based on the analysis of the bipartite graph @Users-#Hashtags and of its projections: the 'semantic network', whose nodes are hashtags, and the 'users interest network', whose nodes are users. In the first instance, we find out that discussion topics (#hashtags) present a high structural heterogeneity, with a relevant role played by the semantic hubs that are responsible to guarantee the continuity of the debate. In the users’ case, the self-organisation process of users’ activity, leads to the emergence of two classes of communicators: the 'professionals' and the 'amateurs'. Results: Both the networks present a strong community structure, based on the differentiation of the semantic topics, and a high level of stru...

研究背景：本研究针对围绕社会运动“占领华尔街（Occupy Wall Street）”产生的大规模Twitter活动样本展开分析，旨在探究人类传播活动与辩论语义内容之间的复杂交互关系。

研究方法：本研究采用基于二分图（bipartite graph）@用户-#话题标签（hashtag）及其投影的网络分析方法，具体包含两类投影网络：其一为以话题标签为节点的语义网络（semantic network），其二为以用户为节点的用户兴趣网络（users interest network）。初步分析发现，讨论话题（#话题标签）呈现出高度的结构异质性，语义枢纽在保障辩论持续性方面发挥了关键作用。就用户群体而言，用户活动的自组织过程（self-organisation process）催生了两类传播者：专业传播者（professionals）与业余传播者（amateurs）。

研究结果：两类网络均基于语义话题的分化呈现出显著的社区结构，且具备较高的结构[原文未完成]。