The media frequently describes the 2017 Charlottesville 'Unite the Right' rally as a turning point for the alt-right and white supremacist movements. Social movement theory suggests that the media attention and public discourse concerning the rally may have influenced the alt-right, but this has yet to be empirically tested. The current study investigates whether there are differences in language use between 7,142 alt-right and progressive YouTube channels, in addition to measuring possible changes as a result of the rally. To do so, we create structural topic models and measure bigram proportions in video transcripts, spanning eight weeks before to eight weeks after the rally. We observe differences in topics between the two groups, with the 'alternative influencers' for example discussing topics related to race and free speech to an increasing and larger extent than progressive channels. We also observe structural breakpoints in the use of bigrams at the time of the rally, suggesting there are changes in language use within the two groups as a result of the rally. While most changes relate to mentions of the rally itself, the alternative group also shows an increase in promotion of their YouTube channels. Results are discussed in light of social movement theory, followed by a discussion of potential implications for understanding the alt-right and their language use on YouTube.
翻译:媒体经常将2017年夏洛特斯维尔“联合右派”集会描述为利特右派和白人高端运动的一个转折点。社会运动理论表明,媒体的注意力和公众对集会的言论可能已经影响了利特右派,但还没有经过经验测试。目前的研究调查了7 142个利特右派和进步YouTube频道之间在语言使用上的差别,以及衡量该集会可能产生的变化。为此,我们创建了结构性主题模型,衡量视频记录中的大比例,时间跨度为集会后8周,持续8周。我们观察到两个团体在议题上的分歧,例如“替代影响者”讨论与种族和自由言论有关的话题,其范围比进步的渠道要大得多。我们还注意到在集会时使用大弧和进步的YouTube频道时在使用语言方面存在结构性断裂点,表明这两个团体在集会后的语言使用会有所变化。尽管大多数变化都与提及集会本身有关,但替代团体在推动其YouTube频道方面也有增加。根据社会运动的理论和潜在意义来讨论结果。