Collective Memories in Wikipedia - LiveMemories final review

Collective memories in WikipediaMichela Ferron

Paolo Massa

Anti-Islamic

hate crimes

after 9/11

Movies & culture

Legislation & surveillance

A set of ideas, images, feelings about the past, built through an active process of sense-making through time10th

anniversary of 9/11

7 July 2005 London bombingsmemorial

9/11 memorial

Ocklaoma City bombings memorial

Collective memories

PsychologyCollective as a small

group

Sociology/Philosophy

Collective as a nation

Collective memories

(English) Wikipedia as a global memory place Commemoration in Wikipedia

Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC)Articles: Traumatic VS Non traumatic events Human-made and natural traumatic events

Talk pages: Linguistic markers of emergent memories over time

Conclusions

Commemoration LIWC in Wikipedia Man - Nature Emergent memories Conclusions

Outline

Wikipedia

“[…] the online encyclopaedia is a global memory place where locally disconnected

participants can express and debate divergent points of view and that this leads to the

formation and ratification of shared knowledge that constitutes collective memory.”

(Pentzold, 2009, p. 263)


Commemoration during anniversaries

Commemorations are opportunities to Re-interpret the past Recover from

traumatic experiences

Can we find signs of commemoration activities in Wikipedia pages related to traumatic events?


88 articles and talk pages about traumatic events

Increased activity during anniversaries

During anniversaries of traumatic events users negotiate their interpretation of the past



My heart goes out to the families, friends and loved ones of anyone who lost their life in the 9/11 attacks. […]

My prayers are with those who are related/friends with

the dead of Sept 11.

[…] my sympathy and prayers to those who mourn this day.

[…] Spare a thought for those whose lives were torn apart that day.

I find it extremely upsetting and unfortunate that there were so many unneccessary deaths involved in the September 11

"attacks". […]

I believe the only way we can prevent another tragedy like this is by educating ourselves

about what went wrong. This article does an outstanding job of doing exactly that.Wikipedia articles […] don't cause people to

commit crimes. Encyclopedias educate people. Educated people resist ignorance and hate.

Ignorance and hate beget injustice and violence.

Emotional bonding

Directive function



Commemoration of traumatic events takes place in Wikipedia

Wikipedia can be interpreted as a global memory place and can be studied to investigate collective memory processes



Linguistic Inquiry & Word Count (LIWC; Pennebaker et al., 2001) searches for words across:

Linguistic categories (e.g. pronouns, articles, tenses)

Psychological categories (e.g. social, affective, cognitive processes)

LIWC applied to Wikipedia Psychological processes ExamplesAffective processes Happy, hate, kiss

Positive emotions Love, party, pleasantNegative emotions Hurt, abuse, scary

Anxiety Worried, afraidAnger Kill, aggression, destroySadness Sad, cry, depression

Cognitive processes Cause, acknowledge, admitInsight Think, assume, interpretCausation Because, depend, elicitDiscrepancy Should, could, ifTentative Maybe, apparently, supposeCertainty Always, absolutely, clearInhibition Block, abstain, avoidInclusive And, add, alongExclusive But, either, without

Social processes Mate, guy, boyFamily Daughter, brother, dadFriends Buddy, friend, mateHumans Adult, children, girl


LIWC applied to Wikipedia

All differences are statistically significant

66 articles> negative emotions> cognitive processes> social processes

40 articles> positive emotions

HP:HP:


LIWC is effective in detecting

Differences in content referred to psychological processes related to articles about traumatic and non traumatic events

LIWC applied to Wikipedia


How people remember traumatic events: Understand the consequences on the physical and

psychological health of people and communities Differences in the psychological processes:

First step toward the understanding and the prediction of trauma, typical responses to it, and short and long-term effects

Natural and human-made traumatic events


September 11 attacks

2004 IndianTsunami

Traumatic events are unique

Theoretical reasons to distinguish between natural and human-made traumatic events

Literature: human accidents may have longer and more insidious effects on physical and psychological health: negative emotions; nervousness and anxiety (Cohn et al., 2004;

Adler, 1943)

psychological and work-related problems (Leopold and Dillon, 1963; Henderson and Bostock, 1977; Ploeger, 1972)

depression, anxiety, personality changes (Titchener and Kapp, 1976)

sleep disturbances and psychiatric problems (Gleser et al., 1981; Gleser et al., 1978)

war-related dreams and aggravated assaults (Pennebaker and Harber, 1993)



Uncontrollable helplessness

Loss of control stress arousal

Natural disasters Human disasters

September 11 attacks

2004 IndianTsunami



36 human-madeWikipedia’s categories, e.g. “Assassinations”, “Terrorist incidents”

19 natural disastersWikipedia’s categories, e.g. “2008 Atlantic Hurricane Season”, “1993 natural disasters”

Affective processes Man-made disasters: loss of control (distress) higher

anxiety, anger Natural disasters: uncontrollable (helplessness) higher

sadness

Cognitive processes Man-made disasters: loss of control higher cognitive

processes

Social processes Man-made disasters: increased orientation toward others

higher social processes



Affective processes Happy, hate, kissPositive emotions Love, party, pleasantNegative emotions Hurt, abuse, scary


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**

Human-made traumatic events: more anxiety,

anger (blame)

Natural disasters: more sadness

(passive behavior)




*

** *

Human-made traumatic events: need for

explanation is critical (unexpected loss of control)

Natural disasters: need for

explanation is less pressing (nature is uncontrollable)




*

*

Human-made traumatic events: higher social

orientation? more

references to people (e.g., bomber’s family or social relations)



Different psychological and sensemaking processes underlying users editing activity Specific patterns of emotional language

Man-made disasters

Natural disasters

negative

positive

high activation

stressfulfocused anger

heavier effects

passive responses


low activation


Linguistic markers of emergent memories over time

7 July 2005 London bombings

2011 Egyptian revolution


> 1000 edits in 6 days > 2500 edits in 2 weeks

Literature: changes in emotional, cognitive and social processes after traumatic events

Increase in the negative mood; anxiety and nervousness; depression, personality changes, hostility (Cohn et al., 2004; Koss & Kilpatrick, 2001; Stroebe et al., 2001; Adler, 1943; Green, 1980; Gleser et al., 1981; Pennebaker & Harber, 1993);

Rationalization and critical thinking processes (Cohn et al., 2004; Davis & Nolen-Hoeksema, 2001; Baum et al., 1983)

Seeking of social support, increased social orientation (Cohn et al., 2004; Mehl & Pennebaker, 2003; Pyszczynski et al., 2003; Rimé et al., 1998; Rimé et al., 1992)



HP: higher presence of language related to

Affective: emotional impact

Cognitive: need for explanation

Social processes: social orientation

in the immediate aftermath of the bombings

7 July 2005 London bombings



Each edit analyzed with LIWC Data grouped by day

7Jul

12Jul





χ²(5)=19.39, p=.002

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Condolences. I am so sorry to hear about

this terrible and barbaric act of terrorism. My

thoughts are with the British people.

I am so sorry for the victims,

injured and wounded

londoners.





χ²(5)=12.64, p=.027

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*

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… there are bombs everywhere. I'm

scared, but I'm sure it will all be okay. Phone the

police if you're worried.Please add a

"Missing Persons" section.Over 24 hours people are getting desperate.





χ²(5)=14.28, p=.014

** *

*

It is officially being called the

worst UK terrorist attack on British soil

Please READ MY FUCKING ARGUMENTS.

There isn’t any reason to loose your temper.I tried to

compromise, but you are reverting my edits out of pure spite.



High emotional load in the immediate aftermath of the bombings



χ²(5)=20.28, p=.001

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*


Can we please have a

reference for the police

conference…Gladys Wundowa has disappeared from news coverage, so presumably there

was a mistake.

Unexpected: Insight is higher

after a few days



χ²(5)=15.25, p=.009

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*


*

Contacting friends / families etc.Does anyone know of a coordinated attempt to get word of people who are safe to their friends and relatives - something similar to what was used during the tsunami etc. ? It kind of helps to have

the numbers there, as people are trying to find out information about relatives, friends, etc.

Initial preoccupation for friends and relatives



Hp partially confirmed:

Language related to affective and social processes was higher immediately after the bombings

Language expressing cognitive processes (insight) was higher after a few days Contrary to previous research by Cohn et al.

(2004) finding an immediate increase in cognitive activity after 9/11



HP: higher presence of language related to

Affective: emotional impact

Cognitive: need for explanation

Social processes: social orientation

in the most heated days of the revolution

2011 Egyptian revolution



“Battle of

the Camel”

“Friday of Departure”

25Jan

2Feb

11Feb

17Feb

Two crucial moments in the time span analyzedCommemoration LIWC in Wikipedia Man - Nature Emergent memories Conclusions


~ 400 edits

~ 250 edits

Each edit analyzed with LIWC Data grouped by 2-days

25Jan

2Feb

11Feb

17Feb





χ²(11)=20.10, p=.044

* **

*

Pro-Mubarak protesters are killing

the pro-Democracy protesters. OMG. 300 dead so far. Its sickingScary scenes of

violence on al jazeera :(

My thoughts are with those in Egypt.





χ²(11)=23.74, p=.014

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Number of journalists attacked; human rights members attacked. This article from Forbes discusses that 24 reporters were arrested on Thursday and 21 were assaulted.

[…] STOP CAT-FIGHTING, YOUR NOT A BUNCH OF RIOTERS IN

TIRIR SQUAIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





χ²(11)=23.74, p=.014

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[…] Khaled Saeed was one of the main catalysts for these protests and his name is a

rallying cry for the protesters.[…] I actually know Wael personally. I hope he is alive, I really do. Its very

sad.I think it's quite clear with Mubarak's resignation that this should be considered a revolution.

*



High emotional load in the days corresponding to the “Battle of the Camel”




χ²(11)=29.40, p=.002

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*

I think putting both of them in the Reception section would mitigate any POV problems.

Should the takeover of the

Egyptian embassy in Venezuela be

added to the article?

Discrepancy: linguistic politeness (Sexton & Helmreich, 2003)

Unexpected: Discrepancy is higher

before the “Battle of the Camel”



χ²(11)=24.10, p=.012

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*


No, we need to integrate it

elsewhere, then delete.and whose WE?

because I know Im notOK. "We" except

you.everyone above disagree with (YOU). so again whose WE?

And who is "everyone above" that disagree with "(ME)"? "We" - we, the community.



χ²(11)=20.06, p=.045

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The role of womenWomen protesters number anywhere from 20% to 50% participation, depending on the time of day.

Number of journalists attacked; human rights members

attackedThis article from Forbes

discusses that…



High social orientations in the days corresponding to the “Battle of the Camel”



Hp partially confirmed:

Language related to affective and social processes was higher during the 2-3 February (Battle of the Camel) No significant results on the 10-11 February

Language expressing cognitive processes (discrepancy) was higher during the 29-30 January, when emotional language was low Contrary to the HP but consistent with previous results



Specular temporal evolution of affective and cognitive processes

Wikipedia talk pages: collaborative environment

The social context may influence the co-evolution of emotional sharing, critical thinking and linguistic politeness



Considerations

LIWC Limitations (psychological categories are

subjective and context-dependent) Know your data (noise caused by bots, vandalism,

templates)


Conclusions

Commemoration of traumatic events takes place in Wikipedia (global memory place)

Different patterns of emotional language in articles about man-made and natural disasters

Specular temporal evolution of affective and cognitive processes in talk pages of traumatic events

Wikipedia: Quantitative and longitudinal study of collective memories Empirically validate theoretical findings


Conclusions

Thank you!Questions…?

Documents

Collective Memories in Wikipedia - LiveMemories final review