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Title: Using visual analytics to understand diverse social opinions about divisive topics
Hayeong Song
Ph.D. student
School of Interactive Computing
Georgia Institute of Technology
Date: Tuesday, November 29, 2022
Time: 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm (ET)
Location: (in-person)Tech Square 334, (virtual) Microsoft Teams
Meeting ID: 224 156 144 71
Passcode: JErv2y
Committee:
Dr. John Stasko (advisor), School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Alex Endert, School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Clio Andris, School of City and Regional Planning and the School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Diyi Yang, Computer Science Department, Stanford University
Abstract
Social media (i.e., Reddit) users are overloaded with people's opinions when viewing discourses about divisive topics. Traditional user interfaces in such media present people’s opinions in a linear structure (list), which has limitations in assisting users in viewing people’s opinions at scale and viewing a diverse set of opinions. Prior work on discourse architecture studies has recognized this limitation, that the linear structure can reinforce biases and "cyberpolarization", in which a certain point of view becomes widespread simply because many viewers seem to believe it. This limitation can make it difficult for users to have a truly conversational mode of meditated discussion. Thus, when designing a user interface for viewing people's opinions, we should consider ways to mitigate selective exposure to information and polarization of opinions.
To address these problems, my research takes a visual analytics approach to assist users in viewing people's diverse sets of perspectives, such as visually representing the distribution of people's stances. In my work, I aim to answer these key research questions: What are the key limitations of current user interfaces (i.e., Reddit) for viewing controversial online discussions? What is an effective design to address these limitations? How do we provide these capabilities in a pragmatic way?
