The workshop serves as an introduction to two classic digital methods techniques for issue mapping and analysis. A discussion of the Issue Crawler and the Lippmannian device is followed by a short exercise in which we'll study the presence of skeptics among top sources of information related to climate change.

1. Crawling and Scraping
The Issuecrawler and the Lippmannian device.
Erik Borra
Michael Stevenson

2. “Reworking method for Internet research”

3. Issuecrawler.

4. CRAWL STARTING POINTS
Site
A
B
C
Body Text
Body text

5. CRAWL STARTING POINTS
DEPTH ONE
follow all starting points' outlinks
Site
A
B
C
Body Text D
Body text

6. CRAWL STARTING POINTS
DEPTH ONE
TWO
follow all starting points' outlinks found in the previous depth
outlinks from the pages
Site
A
B
C
Body Text D
E
F
G
H
Body text

7. ANALYSIS SNOWBALL
retain all links and sites discovered during the crawl
Site
A
B
C
Body Text D
E
F
G
H
Body text

8. ANALYSIS INTER-ACTOR
retain only links between the starting points
Site
A
B
C
Body Text
Body text

9. ANALYSIS CO-LINK
retain sites that receive links from at least two other sites
Site
B
D
Body Text
Body text

10. Issuecrawler.
Modes of analysis

11. Issuecrawler.
Micro-politics of association
Pharmaceutical multinational and environmental NGO link to
(inter)governmental organizations, but these do not link back.
Pharmaceutical multinational links to environmental NGO, but
NGO does not link back.
(Govcom.org, 1999)

12. Issuecrawler.
Micro-politics of association
Clusters of Armenian and international organizations, latter do not link
back.
(Audrey Selian, 2004)

13. Issuecrawler.
Macro-politics of association
Democratic Presidential Primary Web Campaigns (Betsy Sinclair 2007; 2008)

14. Issuecrawler.
Macro-politics of association

15. Issuecrawler.
Macro-politics of association

16. Issuecrawler.
Network composition over time

17. Issuecrawler.
Micro-politics of association
Macro-politics of association
Network composition over time
However... “Doesn’t do content analysis”

18. Lippmannian device.
Modes of analysis

19. Walter Lippmann (1889-1974).
“A Test of the News,” 1920
Public Opinion, 1922
The Phantom Public, 1927
‘The problem is to locate by clear and coarse objective tests the actor in a
controversy who is most worthy of public support.’ (p120)
-The Phantom Public

20. Lippmannian device.
Showing the partisanship of an actor.
Showing the issue agenda of an organization.
Partisanship or commitment. Which Issue agenda. Which issues are on the
sources mention the expert’s name? agenda of an organization or movement?
Source cloud Issue cloud

21. Lippmannian device.
“Source cloud”
Showing the partisanship or
commitment of sources to one name
Craig Venter's presence in the Synthetic Biology issue space, March 2008. Top sources on "synthetic
biology" according to a Google query, with number of mentions of Venter per source, ordered.

22. Lippmannian device.
“Source cloud”
Method for showing the partisanship or
commitment of sources to names
1. Gather source list (e.g. through IssueCrawler)
2. Query source list for one or more experts

23. Lippmannian device.
“Source cloud”
Showing the partisanship or
commitment of sources to names
Climate Change Skeptics:
Who recognizes them?
(Digital Methods Initiative, 2007)
https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/ClimateChangeSkeptics

24. Lippmannian device.
“Making an Issue cloud”
An organization’s issue agenda
(or commitment)
Public Knowledge, a digital rights NGO,
has issues. Which are they most committed to?

28. Lippmannian device.
“Issue cloud”
Showing the issue commitments
of the NGO, Public Knowledge
Public Knowledge's issue commitment. Lower six issues on Public Knowledge's issue list, ranked
according to number of mentions of issues on publicknowledge.org, 2 October 2009.

30. Lippmannian device.
“Making an Issue cloud”
Greenpeace issues, http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns.
Stop climate change
Protect ancient forests
Defending our Oceans
Say no to genetic engineering
Eliminate toxic chemicals
Demand Peace and Disarmament
End the nuclear age
Encourage sustainable trade
Keep most significant issue language.
"climate change"
"ancient forests"
oceans
"genetic engineering"
"toxic chemicals"
disarmament
"nuclear power"
"sustainable trade"

32. Lippmannian device.
“Issue cloud”
Greenpeace’s issue agenda (distribution of
commitment)
Greenpeace's issue commitment. Greenpeace's campaign issue list, ranked according to number of
mentions of issues on greenpeace.org, 11 October 2009.

33. Lippmannian device.
“Making an Issue cloud”
Multiple sources, multiple issues
What is the agenda of the
global human rights network?
Which issues are at the top and
at the bottom of the agenda?
What is the current level of commitment to a
particular issue?

34. Lippmannian device.
“Making an Issue cloud”
Multiple sources, multiple issues
This is more complicated, but still doable
(Govcom.org, University of Pittsburg, UMass Amhearst, ongoing)

35. Lippmannian device.
“Making an Issue cloud”
Take three good lists of human rights
organizations (global south, global north, UN’s)

36. Lippmannian device.
“Making an Issue cloud”
Make a list of all issues listed on all Websites

39. Lippmannian device.
“Issue cloud”
Showing the issue commitments
of global human rights network
Global human rights issue agenda. Global human rights actors' issues, ranked according to the
estimated number of Google mentions on a set of global human rights actors' websites, 31 March 2009.

40. Lippmannian device.
“Issue cloud”
Showing the issue commitments
of global human rights network
Global human rights issue agenda, bottom. Global human rights actors' issues, ranked according to the
estimated number of Google mentions on a set of global human rights actors' websites, 31 March 2009.

41. Lippmannian device.
Partisanship check. Which side of the
controversy is an actor on?
Use the source cloud

42. Lippmannian device.
1. Check an organization’s issue agenda.
What are its current commitments?
2. Check a national or global movement’s issue
agenda. What are its current commitments?
Use the issue cloud

43. Questions.

44. Exercise:
Sourcing Climate Change
Skeptics.

45. Climate Change Sceptics on the Web (Frederick Seitz)
Research Question_To what extent are climate change 'skeptics' present
in the climate change spaces on the Web?
Findings_There is distance between the skeptics and the top of the
search engine returns.
epa.gov (0) bbc.co.uk (0) defra.gov.uk (0) unep.org (0) bom.gov.au (0) ipcc.ch (0) pewclimate.org (0)
davidsuzuki.org (0) panda.org (0) mfe.govt.nz (0) ec.gc.ca (0) exploratorium.edu (0) climatechange.com.au (0)
greenpeace.org (0) climatechallenge.gov.uk (0) guardian.co.uk (0) iisd.org (0) g8.gov.uk (0) campaigncc.org (1)
foe.co.uk (0) state.gov (0) scidev.net (0) eea.europa.eu (0) whoi.edu (0) cbc.ca (0) energy.gov (0)
Body Text
marshall.org (8) climateark.org (4) un.org (0) dar.csiro.au (0) theglobeandmail.com (0)
acfonline.org.au (0) gcrio.org (0) nature.com (0) grida.no (0) nature.org (0) ecokids.ca (0) royalsoc.ac.uk (0)
climatechangecentral.com (0) iea.org (0) ecn.ac.uk (0) ecy.wa.gov (0) worldwildlife.org (0)
realclimate.org (35)
metoffice.gov.uk (0) open2.net (0) scienceagogo.com (0) eldis.org (0) ft.com (0) who.int (0) climatecrisis.net (0)
faqs.org (0)
ltscotland.org.uk (0) abc.net.au (0) climatechange.ca.gov (0) envirolink.org (0) mofa.go.jp (0)
sourcewatch.org (21)
Body text
iucn.org (0) dfat.gov.au (0) ncdc.noaa.gov (0)
climatescience.gov (0) climatechangecollege.org (0) ciel.org (0) ucar.edu (0)
Source_google.com Product_of the Digital Methods Initiative,
Query_“Frederick Seitz” dmi.mediastudies.nl. Analysis_by Bram
Method_Search for query “Frederick Seitz” in top 100. Organized in order. Nijhof, Richard Rogers and Laura van der
Tools_Google Scraper and Tag Cloud Generator Vlies. Design_Anne Helmond.
Date_30 July 2007 CLIMATE CHANGE
SCEPTICS
CC_BY:NC:SA

46. Research Question:
Which climate change issue actors mention the
skeptics, and what kinds of actors are more
likely to mention them?
Method:
Comparative Query: skeptics in three source sets
(‘top’ sources, climate change blogs and climate
change science network), outputting source
cloud for each.

47. Source Sets:
(1) Top ten Google returns for “climate
change” (mix of media as well as governmental
organizations)

48. Source Sets:
(2) Climate change blogs network (IssueCrawler
results - mix of blogs, social media, traditional
media and governmental and non-governmental
organizations)

49. Source Sets:
(3) Climate change science network
(IssueCrawler results - governmental, non-
governmental, educational and media
organizations)