A tool for tracking the propagation of words on Reddit

Tom Willaert; Paul Van Eecke; Jeroen Van Soest; Katrien Beuls

doi:10.5117/CCR2021.1.005.WILL

A tool for tracking the propagation of words on Reddit

Tom Willaert, Paul Van Eecke, Jeroen Van Soest, Katrien Beuls

Informatics and Applied Informatics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

251 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The data-driven study of cultural information diffusion in online (social) media is currently an active area of research. The availability of data from the web thereby generates new opportunities to examine how words propagate through online media and communities, as well as how these diffusion patterns are intertwined with the materiality and culture of social media platforms. In support of such efforts, this paper introduces an online tool for tracking the consecutive occurrences of words across subreddits on Reddit between 2005 and 2017. By processing the full Pushshift.io Reddit comment archive for this period (Baumgartner et al., 2020), we are able to track the first occurrences of 76 million words, allowing us to visualize which subreddits subsequently adopt any of those words over time. We illustrate this approach by addressing the spread of terms referring to famous internet controversies, and the percolation of alt-right terminology. By making our instrument and the processed data publically available, we aim to facilitate a range of exploratory analyses in computational social science, the digital humanities, and related fields.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	117-132
Number of pages	16
Journal	Computational Communication Research
Volume	3
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.5117/CCR2021.1.005.WILL
Publication status	Published - 13 Apr 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 732942.

Publisher Copyright:
© WILLAERT, VAN EECKE, VAN SOEST & BEULS.

Copyright:
Copyright 2023 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Keywords

language propagation
media
reddit
digital methods

Access to Document

10.5117/CCR2021.1.005.WILLLicence: CC BY

willaert2021tool
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license
Final published version, 1.67 MBLicence: CC BY

https://computationalcommunication.org/ccr/article/view/86/22Licence: CC BY

Cite this

@article{336f003895364538a96af28e7c713af5,

title = "A tool for tracking the propagation of words on Reddit",

abstract = "The data-driven study of cultural information diffusion in online (social) media is currently an active area of research. The availability of data from the web thereby generates new opportunities to examine how words propagate through online media and communities, as well as how these diffusion patterns are intertwined with the materiality and culture of social media platforms. In support of such efforts, this paper introduces an online tool for tracking the consecutive occurrences of words across subreddits on Reddit between 2005 and 2017. By processing the full Pushshift.io Reddit comment archive for this period (Baumgartner et al., 2020), we are able to track the first occurrences of 76 million words, allowing us to visualize which subreddits subsequently adopt any of those words over time. We illustrate this approach by addressing the spread of terms referring to famous internet controversies, and the percolation of alt-right terminology. By making our instrument and the processed data publically available, we aim to facilitate a range of exploratory analyses in computational social science, the digital humanities, and related fields.",

keywords = "language propagation, media, reddit, digital methods",

author = "Tom Willaert and {Van Eecke}, Paul and {Van Soest}, Jeroen and Katrien Beuls",

note = "Funding Information: This project has received funding from the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 732942. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} WILLAERT, VAN EECKE, VAN SOEST & BEULS. Copyright: Copyright 2023 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.",

year = "2021",

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doi = "10.5117/CCR2021.1.005.WILL",

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AU - Beuls, Katrien

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N2 - The data-driven study of cultural information diffusion in online (social) media is currently an active area of research. The availability of data from the web thereby generates new opportunities to examine how words propagate through online media and communities, as well as how these diffusion patterns are intertwined with the materiality and culture of social media platforms. In support of such efforts, this paper introduces an online tool for tracking the consecutive occurrences of words across subreddits on Reddit between 2005 and 2017. By processing the full Pushshift.io Reddit comment archive for this period (Baumgartner et al., 2020), we are able to track the first occurrences of 76 million words, allowing us to visualize which subreddits subsequently adopt any of those words over time. We illustrate this approach by addressing the spread of terms referring to famous internet controversies, and the percolation of alt-right terminology. By making our instrument and the processed data publically available, we aim to facilitate a range of exploratory analyses in computational social science, the digital humanities, and related fields.

AB - The data-driven study of cultural information diffusion in online (social) media is currently an active area of research. The availability of data from the web thereby generates new opportunities to examine how words propagate through online media and communities, as well as how these diffusion patterns are intertwined with the materiality and culture of social media platforms. In support of such efforts, this paper introduces an online tool for tracking the consecutive occurrences of words across subreddits on Reddit between 2005 and 2017. By processing the full Pushshift.io Reddit comment archive for this period (Baumgartner et al., 2020), we are able to track the first occurrences of 76 million words, allowing us to visualize which subreddits subsequently adopt any of those words over time. We illustrate this approach by addressing the spread of terms referring to famous internet controversies, and the percolation of alt-right terminology. By making our instrument and the processed data publically available, we aim to facilitate a range of exploratory analyses in computational social science, the digital humanities, and related fields.

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A tool for tracking the propagation of words on Reddit

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

EU521: Opinion Dynamics and Cultural Conflict in European Spaces (ODYCCEUS)

Cite this

A tool for tracking the propagation of words on Reddit

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Projects

EU521: Opinion Dynamics and Cultural Conflict in European Spaces (ODYCCEUS)

Cite this