Using social media to gauge Iranian public opinion and mood after the 2009 election / Sara Beth Elson ... [et al.].

• TeilnehmendeR: Elson, Sara Beth.
• Year of Publication: 2012
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: RAND Corporation technical report series Using social media to gauge Iranian public opinion and mood after the 2009 election
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (109 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

In the months after the contested Iranian presidential election in June 2009, Iranians spoke out about the election using Twitter--a social media service that allows users to send short text messages, called tweets, with relative anonymity. This research analyzed more than 2.5 million tweets discussing the Iran election that were sent in the nine months following it, drawing insights into Iranian public and mood in the post-election period.

Table of Contents

Cover; Title Page; Copyright; Preface; Contents; Figures and Table; Summary; Acknowledgments; Abbreviations; Chapter One: Introduction; Analysis of Social Media Can Help Gauge Public Opinion and Mood in Closed Societies; A New Computer-Based Tool Offers a Promising Means of Tapping intoPolitically Oriented Content in Social Media; This Type of Analysis Can Have Important Policy Uses; Organization of This Report; Chapter Two: Methodology; The Precedent for Our Approach: Previous Research Using LIWC and Word-Usage Analysis; LIWC Has Been Shown to Accurately Represent Verbal Expression

The Real Potential of Exploring Word Usage Lies in Its Links with Behaviors and OutcomesWord Usage Is Now Being Studied in Politically Oriented Contexts; Our Research Process; Planning Tasks: Understanding the Sphere of Relevant Social Media; Selecting Twitter Texts; Selecting Iran-Relevant Political Topics; Selecting the LIWC Word Categories to Use in Our Analysis and Defining How We Would Interpret Them; Chapter Three: Background on Social Media Use in Iran and Events Surrounding the 2009 Election; Social Media Use in Contemporary Iran

The Scale of Internet and Social Media Usage in Contemporary IranWho Is Using Social Media in Iran?; The Anonymity Factor; The Iranian Information Environment Prior to the 2009 Presidential Election; The Use of Social Media During the 2009 Presidential Election in Iran; The Role of Social Media in Iran's Internal Politics Grew Rapidly After the 2009 Presidential Election; Major Events in Iran During the Post-Election Period; The Rise of Mass Protests; June 19: Khamenei's Friday Prayer Speech; June 20: Neda Agha-Soltan's Death; July 9: Anniversary of the 1999 Student Uprisings

August 5: Ahmadinejad's InaugurationSeptember 18: Quds Day; Late December: Ashura Day Protests; February 11, 2010: 31st Anniversary of the Islamic Revolution; Chapter Four: Overall Trends in Public Mood in Iran After the 2009 Presidential Election; Public Mood Throughout the Nine Months After the Election; Twitter's Clearest Indicator of Mood and Forecaster of Action: Swear Words; Use of Pronouns on Twitter After the Election; Summary; Chapter Five: Iranian Public Opinion About Specific Topics in the Aftermath of the 2009 Election

Public Opinion Leading Domestic Political Figures: Ahmadinejad, Khamenei, Mousavi, and KarroubiSummary; Background; Comparing Trends in Public Opinion About Political Figures; Around the Quds Day Protest, Twitter Users Wrote More Negatively About Khamenei Than About Ahmadinejad; At Certain Points, Twitter Users Wrote More Positively and Less Negatively About Karroubi Than About Mousavi; Initially, Twitter Users Swore More About Ahmadinejad Than About Mousavi, but the Opposite Became True; Policy Implications

Pro-Government and Opposition Groups: The Green Movement, the Revolutionary Guards, and the Basij