Top

Social Network Analysis and Mining

Published in:

01-12-2023 | Original Article

Exploring the perceived opinion of social media users about the Ukraine–Russia conflict through the naturalistic observation of tweets

Authors: Aasif Ahmad Mir, Sevukan Rathinam, Sumeer Gul, Suhail Ahmad Bhat

Published in: Social Network Analysis and Mining | Issue 1/2023

Activate our intelligent search to find suitable subject content or patents.

search-config

AI-assisted search

Off

Abstract

The article investigates the opinions expressed by social media users regarding the Ukraine–Russia conflict through the analysis of tweets. It highlights the varied sentiments and support for Ukraine, the impact of verified accounts, and the geographical distribution of tweets. The study also examines the influence of tweet format and user gender on engagement metrics. The findings emphasize the role of social media in shaping public opinion and support during conflicts, offering valuable insights into the digital landscape of contemporary warfare.

AI Generated

This summary of the content was generated with the help of AI.

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to explore and analyze the opinions of people associated with the Ukraine–Russia conflict expressed via User Generated Content (UGC), i.e., tweets and their influence on digital social circles. The "Twitter streaming application programming interface" (API) was used to retrieve the tweets against Ukraine–Russia conflict. The data were collected on March 31st, 2022, and analyzed using a mixed-methods approach. The content analysis of tweets was carried out to interpret and code the content of tweets. The geographical location of users was identified by accessing the profile of every user and the location mentioned by users on their profiles was looked up on the Internet to determine the precise location so that the data can be categorized through the country. To assess the impact of tweets, the engagement metrics (likes and Retweets) were taken into consideration as both the engagement metrics are treated as endorsements or acknowledgments on social media. The stated hypothesis is tested by performing an independent sample Z-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) test on different variables of the study. The content analysis of the tweets highlights that Twitterers have varied opinions toward the Ukraine–Russia conflict, with a majority of tweets expressing support for Ukraine, followed distantly by the ones that ask for fundraising and donations for the distressed people of Ukraine and tweets that express descent toward Russia. As far as the geographical mapping of the tweets is concerned the tweets were posted around the globe, with an immense contribution from the USA, followed by Ukraine, United Kingdom and Canada, respectively. According to the credibility of Twitter accounts, it is found that unverified users posted the majority of tweets. However, the tweets posted by verified users have a more significant impact than those posted by unverified accounts by earning the most online attention score in terms of likes and retweets. Moreover, no significant difference between the format, gender groups and impact of tweets is found so it signifies that the format and gender of a tweet do not influence the engagement metrics of tweets. The research illustrates the diverse opinions of Twitter users on the Russia–Ukraine conflict. The study offers valuable insights on how online studies can be structured for information seeking and analysis to acquire exciting insights about the conflict.

previous article Exploiting stacked embeddings with LSTM for multilingual humor and irony detection

next article A graph model with integrated pattern and query-based technique for extracting answer to questions in community question answering system

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 102.000 Bücher
über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 67.000 Bücher
über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 67.000 Bücher
über 390 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Acar A, Muraki Y (2011) Twitter for crisis communication: lessons learned from Japan’s tsunami disaster. Int J Web Based Commun 7(3):392–402. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJWBC.2011.041206CrossRef

Aljazeera. (2022) Ukraine cuts diplomatic ties with Russia after invasion, available at: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/24/ukraine-breaks-diplomatic-ties-with-russia (accessed 23 April 2022)

Al-Saqaf W, Christensen C (2017) Mainstream media power and lost orphans: the formation of Twitter networks in times of conflict. Media conflict & democratization, available at:http://www.mecodem.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Al-Saqaf-Christensen-2017_Mainstream-Media-Power-and-Lost-Orphans_-The-formation-of-Twitter-networks-in-times-of-conflict.pdf(accessed 29 April 2022)

Alstyne JV (2022) Likes and retweets are endorsements on social media. The academic designer, available at:https://theacademicdesigner.com/2020/likes-and-retweets-are-endorsements(accessed 26 April 2022)

Bashir S, Bano S, Shueb S, Gul S, Mir AA, Ashraf R, Noor N (2021) Twitter chirps for Syrian people: sentiment analysis of tweets related to Syria chemical attack. Int J Disas Risk Red 62:102397. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102397CrossRef

Beigi G, Hu X, Maciejewski R, Liu H (2016) An overview of sentiment analysis in social media and its applications in disaster relief. In: Pedrycz W, Chen SM (eds) Sentiment analysis and ontology engineering studies in computational Intelligence, vol 639. Springer, Cham

Bloomberg (2022) A visual guide to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, available at:https://www.bloohttps://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/24/ukraine-breaks-diplomatic-ties-with-russia mberg.com/graphics/2022-ukraine-russia-us-nato-conflict/ (accessed 2 May 2022)

Bolin G, Jordan P, Ståhlberg P (2016) From nation branding to information warfare : the management of information in the Ukraine–Russia Conflict. In: media and the Ukraine crises : hybrid media practice and narratives of conflict, Pantti M (Ed), Peter Lang Publishing Group, New York, pp. 3–18, available at: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-31172 (accessed 4 May 2022)

Burnap P, Williams ML, Sloan L, Rana O, Housley W, Edwards A, Vincent K, Procter R, Voss A (2014) Tweeting the terror: modelling the social media reaction to the Woolwich terrorist attack. Soc Netw Anal Mining 4(1):206. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13278-014-0206-4CrossRef

Cavanagh S (1997) Content analysis: concepts, methods and applications. Nurse Res 4(3):5–16. https://doi.org/10.7748/nr.4.3.5.s2CrossRef

Chen E, Ferrara E (2022) Tweets in time of conflict: a public dataset tracking the Twitter discourse on the war between Ukraine and Russia. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2203.07488

Cheong M, Lee V (2011) A microblogging-based approach to terrorism informatics: exploration and chronicling civilian sentiment and response to terrorism events via Twitter. Inform Syst Front 13(1):45–59. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-010-9273-xCrossRef

Chowdhury A (2009) Top Twitter trends of 2009, Blog.Twitter.com, available at: https://blog.Twitter.com/official/en_us/a/2009/top-Twitter-trends-of-2009.html(Accessed 15 April 2022)

Cohen R (2022) A surge of unifying moral outrage over Russia's war, The New York Times, availableat:https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/01/world/europe/zelensky-ukraine-war-outrage.html(accessed 19 April 2022)

Coursaris CK, Liu M (2009) An analysis of social support exchanges in online HIV/AIDS self-help groups. Comput Human Behavior 25(4):911–918. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2009.03.006CrossRef

Cvetojevic S, Hochmair HH (2018) Analyzing the spread of tweets in response to Paris attacks. Comput Environ Urban Syst 71:14–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2018.03.010CrossRef

Fakhrurroja H, Atmaja MN, Panjaitan JNC, Alamsyah A, Munandar A (2019) Crisis Communication on Twitter: a social network analysis of christchurch terrorist attack in 2019. In: 2019 International Conference on ICT for Smart Society (ICISS) 7, (pp 1–6), IEEE, Bandung, Indonesia. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICISS48059.2019.8969839

Fischer-Preßler D, Schwemmer C, Fischbach K (2019) Collective sense-making in times of crisis: connecting terror management theory with Twitter user reactions to the Berlin terrorist attack. Comput Human Behav 100:138–151. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2019.05.012CrossRef

Gabel S, Reichert L, Reuter C (2022) Discussing conflict in social media: the use of Twitter in the Jammu and Kashmir conflict. Media War Conflict 15(4):504–529. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750635220970997CrossRef

Garcia MB, Cunanan-Yabut A (2022) Public sentiment and emotion analyses of Twitter data on the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, In: 2022 9th international conference on information technology, computer, and electrical engineering (ICITACEE), pp 242–247, IEEE, Semarang, Indonesia. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICITACEE55701.2022.9924136

Garg P, Garg H, Ranga V (2017) Sentiment analysis of the Uri terror attack using Twitter. In: 2017 international conference on computing, communication and automation (ICCCA) (pp 17–20), IEEE, Greater Noida, India. https://doi.org/10.1109/CCAA.2017.8229812

Garner I (2022) How is the war going for Putin on social media? not great The Washington Post, Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/03/04/russian-social-media-ukraine-vk-propaganda/

Gul S, Mahajan I, Nisa NT, Shah TA, Asifa J, Ahmad S (2016) Tweets speak louder than leaders and masses: an analysis of tweets about the Jammu and Kashmir elections 2014. Online Inf Rev 40(7):900–912. https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-10-2015-0330CrossRef

Gul S, Shah TA, Ahad M, Mubashir M, Ahmad S, Gul M, Sheikh S (2018) Twitter sentiments related to natural calamities: analysing tweets related to the Jammu and Kashmir floods of 2014. Electron Libr 36(1):38–54. https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-12-2015-0244CrossRef

Gulzar F, Gul S, Mehraj M, Bano S, Thelwall M (2022) Digital footprints of Kashmiri Pandit migration on Twitter. Profesional De La Inform. https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2022.nov.07CrossRef

Heverin T, Zach L (2010) Microblogging for crisis communication: examination of Twitter use in response to a 2009 violent crisis in Seattle-Tacoma, Washington area, In: Proceedings of the information systems for crisis response and management conference (ISCRAM 2010). Seattle, WA, USA

Ibar-Alonso R, Quiroga-García R, Arenas-Parra M (2022) Opinion mining of green energy sentiment: a Russia-Ukraine conflict analysis. Mathematics 10(14):2532. https://doi.org/10.3390/math10142532CrossRef

International Criminal Court (2016) Report on preliminary examination activities (2016). https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/iccdocs/otp/161114-otp-rep-PE_ENG.pdf

Iqbal F, Batool R, Fung BC, Aleem S, Abbasi A, Javed AR (2021) Toward tweet-mining framework for extracting terrorist attack-related information and reporting. IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3102040CrossRef

Kwon K, Oh O, Agrawal M, Rao H (2012) Audience gatekeeping in the Twitter service: an investigation of tweets about the 2009 Gaza conflict. AIS Trans Human Computer Interact, 4(4): 212–229. Available at:https://aisel.aisnet.org/thci/vol4/iss4/1

Lachlan KA, Spence PR, Lin X, Najarian K, Del Greco M (2016) Social media and crisis management: CERC, search strategies, and Twitter content. Comput Hum Behav 54:647–652. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.05.027CrossRef

Lune H, Berg BL (2017) Qualitative research methods for the social sciences, Pearson, Available at:http://law.gtu.ge/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Berg-B.-Lune-H.-2012.-Qualitative-Research-Methods-for-the-Social-Sciences.pdf

Makhortykh M, Lyebyedyev Y (2015) # SaveDonbassPeople: Twitter, propaganda, and conflict in Eastern Ukraine. Commun Rev 18(4):239–270. https://doi.org/10.1080/10714421.2015.1085776CrossRef

Malyarenko T, Wolff S (2018) The logic of competitive influence-seeking: Russia, Ukraine, and the conflict in Donbas. Post Soviet Affairs 34(4):191–212. https://doi.org/10.1080/1060586X.2018.1425083CrossRef

McGee L, Princewill N (2022) World leaders respond to Ukraine invasion, as fresh sanctions await Russia. CNN, Available at:https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/24/europe/global-response-to-russia-ukraine-intl/index.html

Mir AA, Rathinam S, Gul S (2021) Public perception of COVID-19 vaccines from the digital footprints left on Twitter: analyzing positive, neutral and negative sentiments of Twitterati. Library Hi Tech 40(2):340–356. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-08-2021-0261CrossRef

Neuendorf KA (2017) The content analysis guidebook. Sage, Los AngelesCrossRef

Nganji JT, Cockburn L (2020) Use of Twitter in the cameroon anglophone crisis. Behav Inform Technol 39(3):267–287. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2019.1620333CrossRef

Nikolayenko O (2019) Framing and counter-framing a peace March in Russia: the use of Twitter during a hybrid war. Soc Move Stud 18(5):602–621. https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2019.1599852CrossRef

Oh O, Agrawal M, Rao HR (2011) Information control and terrorism: tracking the Mumbai terrorist attack through Twitter. Inform Syst Front 13(1):33–43. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-010-9275-8CrossRef

Oliveira A, Huertas A (2019) How do destinations use Twitter to recover their images after a terrorist attack. J Destin Market Manag 12:46–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2019.03.002CrossRef

Pandey US (2023) Understanding social media and global conflict. Med Watch 14(1):7–9. https://doi.org/10.1177/0976091122114452MathSciNetCrossRef

Patton MQ (1990) Qualitative evaluation and research method, Newsbury Park, London:Sage Publications inc. Availableat:http://law.gtu.ge/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Berg-B.-Lune-H.-2012.-Qualitative-Research-Methods-for-the-Social-Sciences.pdf

Pengnate SF, Lehmberg DG, Tangpong C (2020) Top management’s communication in economic crisis and the firm’s subsequent performance: sentiment analysis approach. Corp Commun Int J 25(2):187–205. https://doi.org/10.1108/CCIJ-07-2019-0094CrossRef

Rauchfleisch A, Artho X, Metag J, Post S, Schäfer MS (2017) How journalists verify user-generated content during terrorist crises analyzing Twitter communication during the Brussel sattacks. Soc Med Soc. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305117717888CrossRef

Rojansky M (2016) The Ukraine-Russia conflict: a way forward. Sec Human Rights 27(3–4):315–325. https://doi.org/10.1163/18750230-02703008CrossRef

Schafer V, Truc G, Badouard R, Castex L, Musiani F (2019) Paris and nice terrorist attacks: exploring Twitter and web archives. Med War Conflict 12(2):153–170. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750635219839382CrossRef

Seo H (2014) Visual propaganda in the age of social media: an empirical analysis of Twitter images during the 2012 Israeli-Hamas conflict. Vis Commun Q 2(13):150–161. https://doi.org/10.1080/15551393.2014.955501CrossRef

Siapera E, Hunt G, Lynn T (2015) # GazaUnderAttack: Twitter, palestine and diffused war. Inform Commun Soc 18(11):1297–1319. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2015.1070188CrossRef

Simon T, Goldberg A, Aharonson-Daniel L, Leykin D, Adini B (2014) Twitter in the cross fire—the use of social media in the westgate mall terror attack in Kenya. PloS one 9(8):e104136. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0104136CrossRef

Sinnappan S, Farrell C, Stewart E (2010) Priceless tweets! a study on Twitter messages posted during crisis: black saturday, ACIS 2010 Proceedings. Paper 39. Available at:http://aisel.aisnet.org/acis2010/39

Smart B, Watt J, Benedetti S, Mitchell L, Roughan M (2022) #IStandWithPutin versus #IStandWithUkraine: the interaction of bots and humans in discussion of the Russia/Ukraine war. In: Hopfgartner F, Jaidka K, Mayr P, Jose J, Breitsohl J (eds) Social Informatics. SocInfo 2022. Lecture notes in computer science, vol 13618. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19097-1_3CrossRef

Sreenivasan ND, Lee CS, Goh DHL (2011) Tweet me home: exploring information use on Twitter in crisis situations, In: International conference on online communities and social computing (pp 120–129). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21796-8_13

Steensen S (2018) Tweeting terror: an analysis of the Norwegian Twitter-sphere during and in the aftermath of the 22 July 2011 terrorist attack, In: Social media use in crisis and risk communication, pp 15–41. Emerald Publishing Limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78756-269-120181006

Sullivan B (2022), Russia’s at war with ukraine. Here's how we got here, Available at:https://www.capradio.org/news/npr/story?storyid=1080205477

Talabi FO, Aiyesimoju AB, Lamidi IK, Bello SA, Okunade JK, Ugwuoke CJ, Gever VC (2022) The use of social media storytelling for help-seeking and help-receiving among Nigerian refugees of the Ukraine-Russia war. Telematics Inform 71:101836. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2022.101836CrossRef

Tenenboim O (2017) Reporting war in 140 characters: How journalists used Twitter during the 2014 Gaza–Israel conflict, Int J Commun, 11(2), Available at:https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/6570

Terpstra T, Stronkman R, de Vries A, Paradies GL (2012) Towards a realtime Twitter analysis during crises for operational crisis management. In: ISCRAM, Available at:https://www.hkv.nl/wpcontent/uploads/2020/07/Towards_a_realtime_Twitter_analysis_ISCRAM2012_TT.pdf

Tian X, He W, Wang FK (2021) Applying sentiment analytics to examine social media crises: a case study of United Airline’s crisis in 2017. Data Technol Appl 56(1):1–23. https://doi.org/10.1108/DTA-09-2018-0087CrossRef

Vera VDG, Suárez LMM, Lopera ICP (2018) Sentiment analysis on post conflict in Colombia: A text mining approach, Asian J Appl Sci, 6(2). Available at: https://192.99.73.24/index.php/AJAS/article/view/5251

Vera-Burgos CM, Padgett DRG (2020) Using Twitter for crisis communications in a natural disaster: Hurricane Harvey. Heliyon 6(9):e04804. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04804CrossRef

WaybackMachine (2011) Internet archive, Bloggers back media against youth league. Availableat:https://web.archive.org/web/20110718105104/http://www.journalism.co.za/bloggers-back-media-against-youth-league.html

Westfall S, Parker C (2022) Why are donetsk and luhansk in Ukraine's donbas region a flash point for putin, The Washington Post, Available at:https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/02/21/what-is-donbas-donetsk-luhansk-conflict/

Xiong J, Hswen Y, Naslund JA (2020) Digital Surveillance for monitoring environmental health threats: a case study capturing public opinion from Twitter about the 2019 Chennai water crisis. Int J Environ Res Public Health 17(14):5077. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17145077CrossRef

Zeitzoff T (2017) How social media is changing conflict. J Conflict Resol 61(9):1970–1991. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002717721392CrossRef

Title: Exploring the perceived opinion of social media users about the Ukraine–Russia conflict through the naturalistic observation of tweets
Authors: Aasif Ahmad Mir
Sevukan Rathinam
Sumeer Gul
Suhail Ahmad Bhat
Publication date: 01-12-2023
Publisher: Springer Vienna
Published in: Social Network Analysis and Mining / Issue 1/2023
Print ISSN: 1869-5450
Electronic ISSN: 1869-5469
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13278-023-01047-2

Early multi-class ensemble-based fake news detection using content features

Original Article

Homophily and polarization on political twitter during the 2017 Norwegian election

Open Access
Original Article

Reactions to science communication: discovering social network topics using word embeddings and semantic knowledge

Open Access
Original Article

Emotional sentiment analysis of social media content for mental health safety

Original Article

Calling for justice with #JusticeforBreonnaTaylor: a case study of hashtag activism in the evolution of the black lives matter movement

Open Access
Original Article

A graph model with integrated pattern and query-based technique for extracting answer to questions in community question answering system

Original Article

Springer Professional

Exploring the perceived opinion of social media users about the Ukraine–Russia conflict through the naturalistic observation of tweets

Abstract

Abstract

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Springer Professional "Technik"

Other articles of this Issue 1/2023

Early multi-class ensemble-based fake news detection using content features

Homophily and polarization on political twitter during the 2017 Norwegian election

Reactions to science communication: discovering social network topics using word embeddings and semantic knowledge

Emotional sentiment analysis of social media content for mental health safety

Calling for justice with #JusticeforBreonnaTaylor: a case study of hashtag activism in the evolution of the black lives matter movement

A graph model with integrated pattern and query-based technique for extracting answer to questions in community question answering system

Premium Partner

Springer Professional

Abstract

Please log in to get access to your license.

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Springer Professional "Technik"

Early multi-class ensemble-based fake news detection using content features

Homophily and polarization on political twitter during the 2017 Norwegian election

Reactions to science communication: discovering social network topics using word embeddings and semantic knowledge

Emotional sentiment analysis of social media content for mental health safety

Calling for justice with #JusticeforBreonnaTaylor: a case study of hashtag activism in the evolution of the black lives matter movement

A graph model with integrated pattern and query-based technique for extracting answer to questions in community question answering system