The fifteen days: building claims and contexts

Abstract

Abstract This paper examines the process of protest claim-making by reconstructing the semantic structure of online communication that took place prior to the first street event of a protest. Topic networks are identified on the basis of topic modeling outputs, deeming topics to be connected if they share the same terms. Semantic communities within such topic networks are specified by patterns of inter-topic relations with the aim to delineate the emergence of cohesive semantic communities as protest claims. This paper argues that protest claims are developed through the repetition of specific arrangement of topics, which generates relevance among topics discussed concurrently and continually over time. The iterated patterns shape semantic coherence through brokering terms that connect topics in consistent ways. Findings are presented by investigating 17 daily corpora of digital posts produced on a bulletin board from April 16 to May 2, 2008, which constitutes the pre-protest period of the Candlelight Protests in South Korea against a government policy on beef trade with the United States.

Keywords

• Semantic communities
• Topic networks
• Topic modeling
• Claim-making
• Large-scale protests
• Digital interactions