Information Occupation: Using Information Science to Explore Social Movements

Information Occupation: Using Information Science to Explore Social Movements

Haimson, O.L., & Cartagena, J. (2013). Information occupation: Using information science to explore Occupy Wall Street. iConference 2013 Proceedings (pp. 733-737). doi:10.9776/13353

Global social movements of 2011 like the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street were unprecedented in their use of social media as an organizing tool and communication technique. To further explore the role of mobile/social technologies in these movements, we analyze information diffusion in Occupy Wall Street by means of social media over a nine-month period beginning in September 2011 as well as describe the movement’s information ecosystem. Specifically, we perform a network visualization and analysis of Twitter data sets and analyze Twitter volume over time to understand OWS’ information practices. Multi-site, participant observation is utilized to observe these information practices.

Presented at iConference 2013