Using Digital Animation to Inform Counter-Extremism Efforts: A Demonstration

1. Using Digital Animation to Inform Counter-Extremism Efforts: A Demonstration Waseem Afzal & Andrew hagan School of Information Studies School of Communication and creative industries 4 April 2018

2. Background • Properties of Information • Extremism • Media

3. Properties of Information • Qualitative Properties • Accuracy • Consistency • Objectivity • Quantitative Properties • Skewness • Asymmetry • Lexical Diversity • Affective Property

4. Extremism • Conception • Potential Effects • Roots • Categorization

5. Media • Web sites • Social Media • Multimedia products • Affordances of each media type • Qualities of content in each media outlet

6. Research Problem Identification of the informational properties of the extremists’ content & To develop prototypes (e.g., software, animations, typologies) informing research on counter-extremism

7. Methodology • Conceptual and Analytical Framework • Based on works of • Knight & Burn (2005); Lee et al. (2002) – Qualitative properties • Aboody & Lev (2000); Afzal et al. (2009); Keller & Staelin (1987) – Quantitative properties • Ortony et al. (1987) – Affective properties

8. Methodology • Operationalization of Framework • Corpus of data (magazine, blogs, news bulletins) • Three qualitative properties (Accuracy, Objectivity, & Consistency) • Two quantitative properties (Skewness, Lexical Diversity) • Skewness (+, -) & (weight assignment) • Lexical Diversity (STTR) • Weight were assigned to terms classified along three dimensions • Affective • Theological/Religious • Political/Historical

9. Results-Classification of Terms

10. Outputs • Afzal, W., & Hagan, A. (2017). Using virtual reality to counter extremism. In Proceedings of the 80th Association for Information Science and Technology Conference, Washington D.C., USA, 54(1), 612-613. • Afzal, W. (2016). Understanding and countering information strategies of extremists: What can the Australian Army learn from the distributional properties of information. Report submitted to the Australian Army-Commonwealth of Australia. • Afzal, W. (2016). A study of the informational properties of the ISIS’s content. In Proceedings of 79thASIST Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark, 53(1), 1-10. • Afzal, W., & Wallis, J. (2016). Informational properties of extremist content: An evidence-based approach. Australian Army Journal, XIII(2), 67-90. • Afzal, W. (2017). Informational properties of the ISIS’s content: An evidence-based approach. Presentation at the School of Information Studies Research Seminar, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, Australia. • Afzal, W. (2016).A study of the informational properties of the ISIS’s content. Presentation at the 79thASIS&T Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark.

11. Post-2016 • Forging a research partnership • Exploration of different possibilities • Developing a script • Developing an animation

12. Implications and Future Research • Counter-Radicalization Strategy • Narrative • Technology • Long-term approaches • Information and Affect

13. Thanks.Questions/Comments!