Unveiling Public Sentiment: The Role of Social Media in Shaping Perception of Conflicts
Unveiling Public Sentiment: The Role of Social Media in Shaping Perception of Conflicts

Author(s): Elja Dalipaj, Egla Mansi, Nerajda Feruni
Subject(s): Social Sciences
Published by: Udruženje ekonomista i menadžera Balkana
Summary/Abstract: Social media networks have become a critical tool for sharing information and influencing public opinion on controversial political or social events. Recent studies have revealed that users tend to alter the content before sharing it, hence spreading a point of view contrary to that of the original author. This phenomenon plays a significant role in shaping public opinion on delicate political matters, particularly considering the common bias found in press reports and articles favoring certain ideological or political factions, which contradicts the supposed neutrality of the media. Hence, this study focuses on the ongoing global conflicts, aiming to uncover insights into how social media users are influenced by the political rhetoric of prominent political figures worldwide. Our dataset consists of more than 1,000 comments on social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter, where the French president discusses his views on the ongoing conflict. This study utilizes natural language processing (NLP) techniques to analyze sentiment dynamics, media influence, temporal patterns, and user behaviors within the comments section of social media platforms. The aim is to observe how the public’s perception is formed, including their attitudes towards support dynamics such as donations and other forms of assistance. The authors employ various methodologies to meticulously gather and process information from diverse sources, including data scraping. This approach ensures the creation of a comprehensive and representative dataset for the study. The findings detect an underlying trend and correlation between the political conversation and societal stance, shedding light on the interplay of the two. The research aims to potentially inform the public, humanitarian organizations, and policymakers on the interplay between these variables and highlight the significance of using data-driven methodologies to unravel the geopolitical discourse and the societal implications.

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