Policy and Complex Systems - Volume 3 Number 2 - Fall 2017
Modeling Social Media Effect on Civil Revolutions
Nazmiye Gizem Bacaksizlar , Mirsad Hadzikadic A
Abstract
This study is a modeling experiment of the social media effect on civil revolutions with preliminary results . The purpose of this study is designing a minimal and most general possible protests model to allow people to test their perspectives . The literature review on modeling civil revolutions presents three interrelated aspects . First , an agent-based modeling ( ABM ) approach is mentioned , as there is increasing interest in computational modeling of human systems . ABM helps us to assess the dynamics of civil revolutions . We review ABM methodology in terms of its benefits for understanding micro- and macro-level behaviors of the problem . Second , we present current computational ABM models and we highlight the analysis of their comparison .
This is important for future work since the contribution of our research links to previous studies . The main research question is “ How does the social media affect protesters ?” Therefore , we investigate social media and its effect on protester networks . To evaluate technological improvements , the third part of the literature review uses two real events from political protests in Egypt and Spain , including the outcomes in terms of social media use . We show these three interrelated parts using a system dynamics ( SD ) view to combine this complex problem ’ s microand macro-level dynamics . In addition , we introduce the preliminary results of the base model .
Keywords : civil revolutions , system dynamics , agent-based modeling , social media
A
Software and Information Systems , University of North Carolina at Charlotte , Charlotte , NC , USA
14 doi : 10.18278 / jpcs . 3.2.2