Advisor Information
Gina Ligon
Location
Dr. C.C. and Mabel L. Criss Library
Presentation Type
Poster
Start Date
2-3-2018 10:45 AM
End Date
2-3-2018 12:00 PM
Abstract
Far-left extremism refers to a network of groups who adhere to and take direct action in accordance with one or more of the following ideas: Support for bio-centric diversity, the belief that the earth and animals are in immediate danger, and the view that the government and other parts of society are responsible for this danger and incapable/unwilling to fix the crisis and preserve the American wilderness (Chermak, Freilich, Duran, & Parkin). Far-left extremism groups self-report activities using publicly accessible, online communiqués. These activities include arson, property damage, harassment, sabotage, and theft (Loadenthal). The communiqués are structured like blog posts with no sorting or search feature, making it difficult analyze the data. A Python web-crawler was built to collect data from the communiqués and store in a database, identifying title, date, country, URL, and contents. Using the structure provided by the database, I found frequency of words, countries, and posts over time. The database provided a way to do a keyword search, allowing the quick identification of posts related to arson. There were 3,010 communiqués collected. Of those, 397 were identified as arson. The most frequent words used in communiqués were animal, will, and ALF. The countries with the most posted were the UK, Sweden, and Mexico. The number of postings peaked in 2008 and has declined since. In conclusion, the web crawler was an effective way to store communiqué data to make future research into the topic easier, as shown by the analysis already able to be completed.
Collecting and Organizing Far-Left Extremist Data from Unstructured Internet Sources
Dr. C.C. and Mabel L. Criss Library
Far-left extremism refers to a network of groups who adhere to and take direct action in accordance with one or more of the following ideas: Support for bio-centric diversity, the belief that the earth and animals are in immediate danger, and the view that the government and other parts of society are responsible for this danger and incapable/unwilling to fix the crisis and preserve the American wilderness (Chermak, Freilich, Duran, & Parkin). Far-left extremism groups self-report activities using publicly accessible, online communiqués. These activities include arson, property damage, harassment, sabotage, and theft (Loadenthal). The communiqués are structured like blog posts with no sorting or search feature, making it difficult analyze the data. A Python web-crawler was built to collect data from the communiqués and store in a database, identifying title, date, country, URL, and contents. Using the structure provided by the database, I found frequency of words, countries, and posts over time. The database provided a way to do a keyword search, allowing the quick identification of posts related to arson. There were 3,010 communiqués collected. Of those, 397 were identified as arson. The most frequent words used in communiqués were animal, will, and ALF. The countries with the most posted were the UK, Sweden, and Mexico. The number of postings peaked in 2008 and has declined since. In conclusion, the web crawler was an effective way to store communiqué data to make future research into the topic easier, as shown by the analysis already able to be completed.