Resilient Digital Communities: Social Media, Crisis Response, and Collective Action
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10125/112454
Browse
Recent Submissions
Item type: Item , CognitiveSky: Scalable Sentiment and Narrative Analysis for Decentralized Social Media(2026-01-06) Chhetri, Gaurab; Dutta, Anandi; Das, SubasishThe emergence of decentralized social media platforms presents new opportunities and challenges for real-time analysis of public discourse. This study introduces CognitiveSky, an open-source and scalable framework designed for sentiment, emotion, and narrative analysis on Bluesky, a federated Twitter or X.com alternative. By ingesting data through Bluesky’s API, CognitiveSky applies transformer-based models to annotate large-scale user-generated content and produces structured and analyzable outputs. These summaries drive a dynamic dashboard that visualizes evolving patterns in emotion, activity, and conversation topics. Built entirely on free-tier infrastructure, CognitiveSky achieves both low operational cost and high accessibility. While demonstrated here for monitoring mental health discourse, its modular design enables applications across domains such as disinformation detection, crisis response, and civic sentiment analysis. By bridging large language models with decentralized networks, CognitiveSky offers a transparent, extensible tool for computational social science in an era of shifting digital ecosystems.Item type: Item , How Do Scientists Communicate on Social Media During Crisis?(2026-01-06) Schirrmeister, Till; Stieglitz, StefanThis study explores how scientists utilize social media for science communication during crises, with a focus on the COVID-19 pandemic. Grounded in philosophical stance of sociomateriality and in affordance theory, it investigates the relational dynamics between scientists, social media platforms, and crisis contexts. In this paper, we employ a mixed-method approach that combines content analysis and network analysis to understand both what scientists communicated and with whom they communicated. Analyzing 1,761 social media activities from eight German virologists over six pandemic phases, our research reveals how scientists use social media to facilitate change during times of crisis. Also, we show that despite social media platforms afford scientists to connect with various types of groups, they primarily interacted with accounts of scientific entities. This study contributes theoretically by illustrating context-dependent, relational uses of social media affordances during crises, and practically as it enables organizations and decision-makers develop strategies for crisis contexts.Item type: Item , A Survey of Social Media Users’ Decision-Making Processes when Sharing Information in Crisis Contexts(2026-01-06) Chauhan, ApoorvaSocial media platforms play a vital role in the rapid dissemination of essential information to the public during crisis events. They can, however, also amplify false or inaccurate information, posing life-threatening risks in such situations. As misinformation continues to spread during crises, it becomes increasingly important to understand how users consume and share crisis-related information on social media. The present study, based on a survey of 80 participants, seeks to better understand the factors that influence users’ motivations and decision-making processes when sharing content during crisis events. It explores participants’ understanding of social media algorithms, confidence in detecting false information, content reporting practices, fact-checking habits, and views on accountability of social media platforms. By examining how participants interact with information during crises, the study aims to identify ways to promote more responsible sharing practices to combat false information online.Item type: Item , Introduction to the Minitrack on Resilient Digital Communities: Social Media, Crisis Response, and Collective Action(2026-01-06) Syed, Tahir Abbas; Yasin, Hina; Bhatti, Zeeshan; Clifft, Sarah