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Expressing One's Identity Online: Left-Right and cross EU-country variation in self-representation in social media

This seminar will explore how left- and right-wing users express their sociopolitical identities on social media in eight EU countries, revealing notable variations and divides on themes such as democracy and national lifestyles, depending on political and national contexts.

Event, Research Seminar

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Salle K.008, 1 Place St-Thomas d'Aquin, 75007 Paris


Abstract

We examine how social media users from eight European Union (EU) member  states express their socio-political identities, focusing on users'  online self-presentation and group identity cues conveyed through bios.  Our goal is to explore commonalities and differences in topics discussed  in social media profiles, across Left-and Right-wing user groups,  within and across EU countries. Through a novel approach we map how  identity-related discourse varies by country and political orientation,  revealing how group identity is expressed within the EU. We find that  topics related to democracy, national way of life, and decentralization  emerge as particularly divisive, showing considerable variation both  within and between EU countries. 

A subset of topics, which includes  education, environmentalism, sustainability, equality, freedom &  human rights, and traditional morality, among others, clearly  differentiate Left-from Right-leaning user groups. These partisan topics  are relevant as they could be leveraged for mobilizing ideological  groups and highlight Left-Right identitarian differences at the EU  level. Finally, we show that our Left-Right identity similarity metrics  reflect aspects of real-world political fragmentation, which are closely  aligned to the perceptions of political conflict intensity by country,  as measured by the 2022 PEW survey. 

Biography

Carlo R. M. A. Santagiustina is a researcher for the SoMe4Dem H2020 project at SciencesPo Paris MediaLab. He obtained his PhD in Economics from Ca’ Foscari University Venice in 2018, with a thesis on social media discussions about collective uncertainties, focusing on their impact on political uncertainty and financial markets. His research interests span Behavioural Economics, Social Psychology, Digital Methods, Computational Social Sciences, Media Studies, Statistics, and Computational Linguistics.

Santagiustina's work explores and merges traditional research approaches with digital methods to study socio-economic phenomena through social media, web platforms, and search engine data. In particular, he has developed numerous research methodologies, models, and analysis techniques to study people's perceptions of economic, societal, political, and natural phenomena through the web. He leads the research effort for AquaGranda’s digital community-memory project, which received an Honorary Mention at the European Union Prize for Citizen Science in 2023. He has also worked on various social and technological innovation projects such as Venywhere X CISCO and MUHAI, where he coordinated the  development of a Social Inequality Observatory.

He has published in journals such as the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Economics Letters, Finance Research Letters, and PloS ONE.

In recent years, he has collaborated with multiple Computational Social Science and Artificial Intelligence labs and international research teams, including scholars at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Pompeu Fabra University, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, University of Bremen, and University of Amsterdam. Together, they have designed, co-authored, and contributed to several EU H2020 proposals and projects, such as ODYCCEUS, ISEED, MUHAI, and SoMe4Dem, among others.

For SoMe4Dem, he is developing methods to analyze how social media debates influence real-world socio-economic and political outcomes, particularly regarding petition platforms and crowdfunding campaigns. His research also delves into the dynamics of online polarization, trust creation and erosion, exploring how the design of digital platforms shapes public opinion and social interactions.

Practical information 

The session will be held in a hybrid format on Tuesday, January 28, 2025, from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM, via Zoom and in person at Sciences Po, Room K.008, 1 Place Saint-Thomas d'Aquin, Paris 75007. 


Prior registration is mandatory.