Twitter ‘Hate Map’ shows where racist, homophobic, and offensive tweets originate Read more at http://venturebeat.com/2013/05/14/twitter-hate-map-show

[GandD 5,966]

My wife sent this to me. Seemed like a good discussion piece

Students at Humboldt State University in California individually reviewed 150,000 geocoded tweets containing racist, homophobic, or otherwise offensive terms to build a “hate map” indicating where people in the U.S. are most bigoted.

Or, at least, where they’re the most open about displaying their antisocial views.

The picture doesn’t look good for the Eastern states, although admittedly the bulk of the population is there as well. Areas in Virginia, North Carolina, Texas, and Alabama show up bright red on the map, as do areas in more central states Indiana, Iowa, and Minnesota.

The map is part of a larger project, called the Geography of Hate, by Humboldt State professor Dr. Monica Stephens. The data that forms the map comes from an analysis of every tweet posted between June 2012 and April 2013 that contained at least one of 10 designated “hate words,” including #######, **, chink, ######, wetback, and cripple.

But while the original list of tweets was generated by a machine, every single one of the 150,000 tweets containing one of the target words was individually examined by undergraduate students. As the project description states:

Because algorithmic sentiment analysis would automatically classify any tweet containing “hate words” as “negative,” this project relied upon the HSU students to read the entirety of tweet and classify it as positive, neutral or negative based on a predefined rubric. Only those tweets that were identified by human readers as negative were used in this analysis.

To protect the identity of potentially racist, homophobic, or otherwise bigoted Twitter users, the tweets were aggregated up to the county level, and counties with high levels of hate speech were colored red on the map. Areas with moderate levels — though still higher than the national average — are varying shades of blue, and unshaded areas were below the national average.

Smaller towns seem to have a higher incidence of hate speech — in Virginia, for example, Palmyra is more hateful on Twitter than Richmond. And in Louisiana, New Orleans and Baton Rouge are less hateful than smaller towns nearby.

Read more at http://venturebeat.com/2013/05/14/twitter-hate-map-shows-where-racist-homophobic-and-offensive-tweets-originate/#IT2dviDo4Hk1muZp.99

http://venturebeat.com/2013/05/14/twitter-hate-map-shows-where-racist-homophobic-and-offensive-tweets-originate/

[decocker 7,198]

i don't really get this map. my county looks nothing but red cesspool until i zoom in, and then there is no red or even blue at all. the red is concentrated small dot in west virginia..

[Teddy B 17,252]

You know how everything in life is pushed to the point where people just don't want anymore, kinda like 5 bladed razors. I think Twitter is that end point for social media.

[bsd058 296]

This is interesting, actually! I wonder how they try to eliminate bias and how many hate tweets it takes to change the color of a place. The key says "most hate" and "some hate" which can be interpreted ambiguously.

[GandD 5,966]

i don't really get this map. my county looks nothing but red cesspool until i zoom in, and then there is no red or even blue at all. the red is concentrated small dot in west virginia..

Me neither. It doesn't look like there's near enough data to draw these conclusions. They do match up with my preconceived notions though

Edited May 15, 2013 by GandD

[BaBamSam 239]

I think this map just reinforces most preconceived notions.

[mota bhai 2,675]

The NJ/NY data appears right to me. The n-word is pretty much the only word on the list of words tested that I hear regularly.

[duraaraa 203]

Isn't it ironic how some of the people who are the most prejudiced and hateful can also be some of the people who are the most hospitable -- As a white person, I have traveled to the south and eaten delicious family dinners with friends of friends -- people who I barely knew, and they were tremendously hospitable to me.

I don't often see that kind of hospitality in Los Angeles, which is comparatively not a very racist area.

If people could turn their kindness and hospitality to people who are dissimilar to them, they can gain so much.

[BaBamSam 239]

Isn't it ironic how some of the people who are the most prejudiced and hateful can also be some of the people who are the most hospitable -- As a white person, I have traveled to the south and eaten delicious family dinners with friends of friends -- people who I barely knew, and they were tremendously hospitable to me.

I don't often see that kind of hospitality in Los Angeles, which is comparatively not a very racist area.

If people could turn their kindness and hospitality to people who are dissimilar to them, they can gain so much.

I think that's a difference in culture. Los Angeles has a vastly different culture than the American South and Midwest. I find LA to be extremely friendly, but in more professional ways rather than in personal. Perhaps that's just the nature of the dominant industry. Also, I've noticed that people in LA are much more open to striking up a conversation with anyone, regardless of color/gender/sexuality/etc., than most other places I've been and lived in this country. Again, that might have a lot to do with a large hispanic culture (the dominant culture in LA), high Asian influence, a population with A LOT of transplants, a large gay community and gay-friendly industry, etc.

On the other side of that coin, parts of LA has some of the worst gang crimes (often divided along hispanic/black lines) in the country. That type of hate isn't going to be tweeted about as much.