Assessing Situation Awareness through Blogosphere: A Case Study on Venezuelan Socio-Political Crisis and the Migrant Influx

摘要

The objective of this research is to determine whether the blogosphere, as a type of social media platform, can be used to disseminate information regarding the socio-political views and concerns of citizens within a community. As an example case, we focus on examining information relative to the Venezuelan community regarding the current Venezuelan socio-economic crisis. Are Venezuelan blogs being used to express quality of life concerns that are associated with the crisis? Are Venezuelans using blogs to discuss possible migration away from the region as a result of these concerns? The Blogtrackers tool was used to analyze almost 30,000 Venezuelan blog posts collected between August 2003 and March 2017. Our analysis showed that the blogosphere is indeed being used as a platform for citizens to discuss these issues. We show how the posting frequency, sentiment, and keyword trends have changed over time relative to the changes in the socio-political landscape of the region. Of particular interest is the keyword trend analysis that shows that blogs are being used to discuss issues associated with quality of life factors and interest in migration away from Venezuela as a result of the crisis. We believe that this study can be used as a starting point to show the value of analyzing blogs in facilitating humanitarian assistance efforts.