In recent years, the patterns with which news is produced and con- sumed have changed. Nowadays, anyone can write news and find a channel to push it on the web. Furthermore, social media have became the first place to look for news to the point that, in 2017, two-thirds of Americans reported getting their news from social platforms. How- ever, the ease with which misleading content can gain visibility on social networks has made them a fertile ground for the spreading of misinformation. Moreover, for the implementation of disinformation campaigns. The alleged Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections is just an example of what is happening in many countries. Several investigations in the Italian panorama have brought to light the presence of massive alternative media networks. They were composed of Facebook pages, news websites, and social accounts of politicians and they share mostly misleading content close to the 2018 Italian general elections. In this thesis we perform a deeper analysis on the phenomenon of the dissemination of alternative and mainstream news on social media. In particular, we analyze the Italian scenario during the 2018 election period, focusing our attention on a set of Facebook suspicious ac- counts. The results obtained show that the 2018 Italian elections have seen the use of social campaigns intended to share large quantities of disinformation. Alternative and mainstream news have been shared with different temporal patterns. For example, alternative news have been highly posted close to important events aiming at influencing the public opinion. Finally, using the Hawkes Processes statistical model, we compute the influence that the studied accounts had on pushing URLs on Twitter. We find that those Facebook accounts were more influential at disseminating news URLs towards Twitter than a general Facebook dataset. This result is emphasized if we consider only mainstream news. Besides, the studied Facebook accounts tended less likely to be influenced by the URLs shared on Twitter.
Negli ultimi anni, sono cambiati considerevolmente i metodi con cui le notizie vengono prodotte e consumate. Oggigiorno, chiunque può scrivere un articolo e trovare un canale per inoltrarlo in rete. Inoltre, i social media sono diventati il primo posto dove le notizie vengono cercate. Infatti, nel 2017, due terzi degli americani hanno riferito di aver ricevuto le abituali notizie tramite piattaforme sociali. Tuttavia, la facilità con cui contenuti fuorvianti possono ottenere visibilità sui social media li ha resi un terreno fertile per la diffusione di mala-informazione. Ma anche per l'implementazione di campagne di disinformazione. La presunta influenza russa nelle elezioni degli Stati Uniti nel 2016 è solo un esempio di ciò che sta accadendo in molti paesi del mondo. Anche nel panorama Italiano, numerose indagini hanno messo in luce la presenza di massicce reti di media alternativi. Queste reti sono spesso composte da pagine Facebook e siti di notizie che condividono contenuti per lo più fuorvianti. In questa tesi eseguiamo un'analisi più approfondita sul fenomeno della diffusione di notizie alternative e tradizionali sui social media. In particolare, analizzare lo scenario italiano durante il periodo elettorale del 2018, concentrando la nostra attenzione su una serie di account sospetti di Facebook. I risultati ottenuti mostrano che le elezioni italiane del 2018 hanno visto l’uso di campagne intese a condividere grandi quantità di mala-informazione. Le notizie alternative e tradizionali sono state condivise con diversi modelli temporali. Ad esempio, le notizie alternative sono state altamente condivise vicino ad eventi importanti, con l'obiettivo di influenzarne l'opinione pubblica. Infine, utilizzando un modello statistico chiamato Hawkes Processes, calcoliamo l'influenza che gli account Facebook studiati hanno avuto su Twitter nella condivisione di notizie. Abbiamo scoperto che gli account di Facebook sono stati più influenti nel diffondere notizie verso Twitter rispetto ad un set di dati generale di Facebook. Questo risultato è enfatizzato se consideriamo le sole notizie tradizionali. Inoltre, gli account Facebook studiati tendono ad essere poco influenzati dagli URLs condivisi su Twitter.
Towards understanding alternative and mainstream news dissemination on social media : the case of the 2018 Italian election
PATUELLI, SIMONE
2018/2019
Abstract
In recent years, the patterns with which news is produced and con- sumed have changed. Nowadays, anyone can write news and find a channel to push it on the web. Furthermore, social media have became the first place to look for news to the point that, in 2017, two-thirds of Americans reported getting their news from social platforms. How- ever, the ease with which misleading content can gain visibility on social networks has made them a fertile ground for the spreading of misinformation. Moreover, for the implementation of disinformation campaigns. The alleged Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections is just an example of what is happening in many countries. Several investigations in the Italian panorama have brought to light the presence of massive alternative media networks. They were composed of Facebook pages, news websites, and social accounts of politicians and they share mostly misleading content close to the 2018 Italian general elections. In this thesis we perform a deeper analysis on the phenomenon of the dissemination of alternative and mainstream news on social media. In particular, we analyze the Italian scenario during the 2018 election period, focusing our attention on a set of Facebook suspicious ac- counts. The results obtained show that the 2018 Italian elections have seen the use of social campaigns intended to share large quantities of disinformation. Alternative and mainstream news have been shared with different temporal patterns. For example, alternative news have been highly posted close to important events aiming at influencing the public opinion. Finally, using the Hawkes Processes statistical model, we compute the influence that the studied accounts had on pushing URLs on Twitter. We find that those Facebook accounts were more influential at disseminating news URLs towards Twitter than a general Facebook dataset. This result is emphasized if we consider only mainstream news. Besides, the studied Facebook accounts tended less likely to be influenced by the URLs shared on Twitter.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/153847