This is the presentation we doing last year at INSNA:
Presented at the XXXIII Sunbelt Social Networks Conference of the International Network for Social Network Analysis (INSNA) »
Words and Networks: Methods Social Semantic Validate! Friday, 24th may 2013, Hamburg, Germany
Abstract: More and more deliberation forums are established with the aim to build a consensus between individuals holding divergent views on various topics.
In this paper, we will explore the links between the sociosemantic network, constructed from the semantic similarities, and the discussion network of the participants at a deliberation forum. We will present the main steps of the data collection and procedure for the construction of the sociosemantic network and then proceed to analyze the links between this network and the discussion network of participants. Results show that people tend, in the context of this type of deliberative forum, to discuss with people who support ideas different from their own which result in a radicalization of their position. Implications of these results for deliberation forums will be presented.