Abstract
Although much has been published regarding street protests on social media, few works have attempted to characterize social media users’ spatial behavior in such events. The research reported here uses spatial capture-recapture methods to determine the influence of the built environment, physical proximity to protest location, and collective posting rhythm on variations in users’ spatial detectability and density during a protest in Mexico City. The best-obtained model, together with explaining the spatial density of users, shows that there is high variability in the probability of detection of social media user protest supporters and that the collective posting rhythm and the day of observation are significant explanatory factors. The implication is that studies of collective spatial behavior would benefit by focussing on users’ activity centres and their urban environment, rather than their physical proximity to the protest location, the latter being unable to adequately explain spatial variations in users’ probability of detection and density during the protest event.
Highlights
P are a social phenomenon that contributes to processes of change in all political systems, whether democratic, non-democratic, or some hybrid of the two
We report the results on capture history, model fitting and selection, and the main results obtained by studying the spatial behavior of SMU protest supporters
A visual representation of captured geotagged social media data is given in Figure 3, which shows for each day where the SMUs were captured in the grid cells imposed over Mexico City
Summary
P are a social phenomenon that contributes to processes of change in all political systems, whether democratic, non-democratic, or some hybrid of the two. Massive demonstration events held in the USA have generated renewed international attention from the scientific community on the phenomenon of street protest (Fisher et al, 2019). They typically take place in major urban centres and are inspired by a wide range of different motives. About the spatial behavior of social media users who support street protests and how the urban environment of a city influences it.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
