• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0268401221000906/pdfft?md5=11e4c9e316e6261460611db3c415e588&pid=1-s2.0-S0268401221000906-main.pdf

Main idea

• Social capital theory: collectivities with relatively large numbers of internal ties derive benefits from access to shared resources and cognition
  • Individuals seek to reinforce their world views on Reddit (featured by anonymity, ideologically aligned and segregated subcommunities)
  • incivility against political opponents to be an effective mobilization tool
• Social selection theory: individuals join online subcommunities to form connections based on shared interests, values, and attitudes ("echo chamber" effect)
  • Individuals subscribing to a given subreddit are likely to enjoy similar content
  • When over time the toxicity of submitted posts become similar to each other (homophily, "birds of a feather flock together")

Research Question

1. What are the factors that affect tie formation in the network of news sources as it relates to COVID-19 related information sharing on Reddit?
2. How does toxicity influence the number of ties formed by a news source in the network of COVID-19 news sources on Reddit?
3. How does similarity in toxicity influence tie formation between two news sources in the network of COVID-19 news sources on Reddit?

Definition

• Toxicity of online content
  • the usage of rude, disrespectful, or unreasonable language that will likely provoke or make another user leave a discussion
• affiliate network: publisher → affiliate network → view
  • news source → subreddit → user
  • weight of tie between news source and subreddit

Model

• H1: In Reddit's political subcommunities, a news source associated with high toxicity is shared more often with other news sources than a news source associated with low toxicity.
• H2: On Reddit, news sources associated with similar levels of toxicity will be shared together more often than news sources associated with different levels of toxicity.

Conclusion

• Homophily and covariate effects of toxicity on tie formation in the network of COVID-19 related news sources on Reddit was identified.
  • the underlying news sources' network does not arise randomly, but that influences from human activity help structure the network. (ex. editorializing to make the titles more toxic would benefit the associated news source, and the reverse is true.)

Analysis

• Toxicity score (Obadimu et al. 2019)
• exponential random graph modeling (ERGM) on the one-mode projection
  • parameters for structural: transitivity, reciprocity, degree distribution
  • node attributes: variations in tie formation, attribute similarity, attribute mixing