Wednesday, May 15, 2013

The Geography of Hate. Be careful what you tweet, you twit!

Here's another one of those Twitter maps that's interesting.  The first time I became aware of this socio-mapping was during the last presidential election when Twitter followed tweets across the country and mapped in real time conversations, pro and con each candidate, as the election progressed.

This map, created by geography students at Humboldt State University in California, looks at more than 150,000 geocoded tweets (tweets that say where the user is located) between June 2012 and April 2013, sorting for those that contained a racist, homophobic or anti-disability word. The researchers then decided whether or not the tweet was using the word in a hateful way.

Of course, as so often happens with these type things, the survey is slanted to support a preconceived view.  You'll notice that, in the student's erstwhile effort to uncover hate in American, they have conveniently omitted a search for words of reverse discrimination such as, whitey or cracker or honky.  It figures.  I could write a tome on how the creation of the blues and jazz has been handed over to the blacks, but that's another story.

Here's The Link To The Interactive Map,  it's worth a look.  Scroll over the words at the top for a more detailed search and zoom in to the county level.

12 comments:

  1. OK, so how about all those haters that DON'T Twitter? There are lots of people out there who don't text, Twitter, or any of the other du jour "social" fads.

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    1. Good point. One would think that those who tweet and facebook and such are the more enlightened among us. What we need is a barroom poll. Or better yet, things like the American Legion, VFW, Masons, etc.

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    2. I deleted most of my "news feeds" on facebook, because I got tired of the negativity. Now I only get news from family and a few close friends, which is what facebook was all about in the first place.
      I love the idea of the barroom poll.
      I wonder if there is a map out there for Chi Love.

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  2. This map is interesting in way, but I have my own group of hate-filled political weather vanes at work.

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  3. Please, write that tome. Cripples, huh? Geez.

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  4. Though they pretty much nailed MI they seem to have left Detroit in the blue...it's nice to know i don't live in the most segregated hateful place (racially) in America. Maybe the should have thrown in violence. fucking twits.

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    1. Obviously, the reason Detroit is in the blue is because they left out words like cracker and honky, eh?

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  5. Spot on with this write-up, I seriously feel this site needs a lot more attention.
    I'll probably be back again to read more, thanks for the advice!

    Look into my web blog rc Hobbies

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  6. I'm so awful..I don't even care what I think more less what anyone else thinks..ha

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  7. ALL such surveys are twisted and can be construed to say what you want. Yes, what about those words you mentioned! Nice point.

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