Tom Willaert
Biographic Data
| ID | 292174 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Tom Willaert |
| GIVEN NAMES | Tom |
| FAMILY NAME | Willaert |
| SIGNATURE | WILLAERT T |
| AFFILIATIONS | Vrije Universiteit Brussel |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3879-6767 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 0 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 0 |
The social dilemma of online segregation
To understand how social media shapes online discourse or contributes to polarization, we need models of collective online choice that link users’ behavioral adaptation to the emergence of complex and dynamic digital environments. This study develops a dynamic model of platform selection based on Social Feedback Theory, using multi-agent reinforcement learning to capture how user decisions are shaped by past rewards across platforms. A key parame…
From denazification to the Golden Billion
In the wake of the Russian Federation’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the subsequent Western ban on Russian state media such as RT and Sputnik, journalistic reports have highlighted an emerging phenomenon in which the Kremlin weaponises its diplomatic channels (such as social media accounts of embassies and consulates) to circulate propaganda narratives aimed at undermining Western support for Ukraine. The present paper aims to make an…
Extracting narrative signals from public discourse
Narratives are key interpretative devices by which humans make sense of political reality. As the significance of narratives for understanding current societal issues such as polarization and misinformation becomes increasingly evident, there is a growing demand for methods that support their empirical analysis. To this end, we propose a graph-based formalism and machine-guided method for extracting, representing, and analyzing selected narrative…
Reactionary sensemaking
Internet memes used to be funny, but somewhere in the mid-2010's, a darker dimension surfaced. This editorial explores this ‘reactionary turn’ in digital culture through a collection of articles and commentaries on ‘the micropolitics of online oppositional subcultures’. In the special theme, these range from commentaries on how misogyny and hate speech exploit platform affordances to articles tracing the growth and spread of arcane memes and anti…
Telegram and Digital Methods
Introduction The study of online conspiracy theory communities presents unique methodological challenges. Online conspiracy theorists often adhere to an individualistic knowledge culture of “doing one’s own research” (Fenster 158). This results in a decentralised landscape of theories, narratives and communities that challenges conventional top-down approaches to analysis. Moreover, conspiracy theories tend to be discussed on the fringes of the o…
Deep state phobia
Recent scholarship has established that conspiracist narratives proliferated in mainstream online discourse during the coronavirus pandemic. This proliferation has been provocatively characterized as a ‘conspiracy singularity’ in which previously divergent conspiracy narratives converged into a single, overarching narrative. Yet while the idea of narrative convergence has long figured in conspiracy theory research, empirical evidence has been sca…
Disinformation networks
In the field of disinformation research, the study of antagonistic networks and discourse on the messaging platform Telegram has developed into an active area of investigation. To this end, recent literature has specifically set out to map the scale, scope, and narrative trends marking Telegram communities with ties to localised, European contexts. The present paper contributes to this line of inquiry by offering an empirically-informed explorati…
The rise of “gaslighting”
Public concern about “gaslighting” has increased significantly in recent years, both in sociology and the public imagination. As well as describing abuse in romantic relationships, the term has provided a lens for popular understanding of “post-truth” politics. Given that metaphors influence how problems are conceptualized and responded to, we ask how “gaslighting” shapes popular responses to disinformation on Twitter and the conspiracy-rich 4cha…
Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PGIS)
A tool for tracking the propagation of words on Reddit
The data-driven study of cultural information diffusion in online (social) media is currently an active area of research. The availability of data from the web thereby generates new opportunities to examine how words propagate through online media and communities, as well as how these diffusion patterns are intertwined with the materiality and culture of social media platforms. In support of such efforts, this paper introduces an online tool for …
Tracking causal relations in the news
Online debates and debate spheres challenge our assumptions about democracy, politics, journalism, trust, and truth in ways that make them a necessary object of study. In the present article, we argue that the study of online arguments can benefit from an interdisciplinary approach that combines computational methods for text analysis with conceptual models of opinion dynamics. The article thereby seeks to make a conceptual and methodological con…
Transcoding Between Hyper-Antagonistic Milieus
This panel brings together research into the cross-platform relations between radical Web subcultures and how they are constitutive of “hyper-antagonistic” politics in broader Web discourses. The papers share a concern with vernacular practices of “fringe” platforms favoured by an insurgent far-right movement and their relations to more “mainstream” social media. They engage with the concept of “transcoding between milieus” (Deleuze & Guattari 19…
Building Social Media Observatories for Monitoring Online Opinion Dynamics
Social media house a trove of relevant information for the study of online opinion dynamics. However, harvesting and analyzing the sheer overload of data that is produced by these media poses immense challenges to journalists, researchers, activists, policy makers, and concerned citizens. To mitigate this situation, this article discusses the creation of (social) media observatories: platforms that enable users to capture the complexities of soci…
No prominent works on this page.
Transcoding Between Hyper-Antagonistic Milieus
This panel brings together research into the cross-platform relations between radical Web subcultures and how they are constitutive of “hyper-antagonistic” politics in broader Web discourses. The papers share a concern with vernacular practices of “fringe” platforms favoured by an insurgent far-right movement and their relations to more “mainstream” social media. They engage with the concept of “transcoding between milieus” (Deleuze & Guattari 19…
Building Social Media Observatories for Monitoring Online Opinion Dynamics
Social media house a trove of relevant information for the study of online opinion dynamics. However, harvesting and analyzing the sheer overload of data that is produced by these media poses immense challenges to journalists, researchers, activists, policy makers, and concerned citizens. To mitigate this situation, this article discusses the creation of (social) media observatories: platforms that enable users to capture the complexities of soci…
Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PGIS)
A tool for tracking the propagation of words on Reddit
The data-driven study of cultural information diffusion in online (social) media is currently an active area of research. The availability of data from the web thereby generates new opportunities to examine how words propagate through online media and communities, as well as how these diffusion patterns are intertwined with the materiality and culture of social media platforms. In support of such efforts, this paper introduces an online tool for …
Tracking causal relations in the news
Online debates and debate spheres challenge our assumptions about democracy, politics, journalism, trust, and truth in ways that make them a necessary object of study. In the present article, we argue that the study of online arguments can benefit from an interdisciplinary approach that combines computational methods for text analysis with conceptual models of opinion dynamics. The article thereby seeks to make a conceptual and methodological con…
Telegram and Digital Methods
Introduction The study of online conspiracy theory communities presents unique methodological challenges. Online conspiracy theorists often adhere to an individualistic knowledge culture of “doing one’s own research” (Fenster 158). This results in a decentralised landscape of theories, narratives and communities that challenges conventional top-down approaches to analysis. Moreover, conspiracy theories tend to be discussed on the fringes of the o…
Deep state phobia
Recent scholarship has established that conspiracist narratives proliferated in mainstream online discourse during the coronavirus pandemic. This proliferation has been provocatively characterized as a ‘conspiracy singularity’ in which previously divergent conspiracy narratives converged into a single, overarching narrative. Yet while the idea of narrative convergence has long figured in conspiracy theory research, empirical evidence has been sca…
Disinformation networks
In the field of disinformation research, the study of antagonistic networks and discourse on the messaging platform Telegram has developed into an active area of investigation. To this end, recent literature has specifically set out to map the scale, scope, and narrative trends marking Telegram communities with ties to localised, European contexts. The present paper contributes to this line of inquiry by offering an empirically-informed explorati…
The rise of “gaslighting”
Public concern about “gaslighting” has increased significantly in recent years, both in sociology and the public imagination. As well as describing abuse in romantic relationships, the term has provided a lens for popular understanding of “post-truth” politics. Given that metaphors influence how problems are conceptualized and responded to, we ask how “gaslighting” shapes popular responses to disinformation on Twitter and the conspiracy-rich 4cha…
Reactionary sensemaking
Internet memes used to be funny, but somewhere in the mid-2010's, a darker dimension surfaced. This editorial explores this ‘reactionary turn’ in digital culture through a collection of articles and commentaries on ‘the micropolitics of online oppositional subcultures’. In the special theme, these range from commentaries on how misogyny and hate speech exploit platform affordances to articles tracing the growth and spread of arcane memes and anti…
From denazification to the Golden Billion
In the wake of the Russian Federation’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the subsequent Western ban on Russian state media such as RT and Sputnik, journalistic reports have highlighted an emerging phenomenon in which the Kremlin weaponises its diplomatic channels (such as social media accounts of embassies and consulates) to circulate propaganda narratives aimed at undermining Western support for Ukraine. The present paper aims to make an…
Extracting narrative signals from public discourse
Narratives are key interpretative devices by which humans make sense of political reality. As the significance of narratives for understanding current societal issues such as polarization and misinformation becomes increasingly evident, there is a growing demand for methods that support their empirical analysis. To this end, we propose a graph-based formalism and machine-guided method for extracting, representing, and analyzing selected narrative…
The social dilemma of online segregation
To understand how social media shapes online discourse or contributes to polarization, we need models of collective online choice that link users’ behavioral adaptation to the emergence of complex and dynamic digital environments. This study develops a dynamic model of platform selection based on Social Feedback Theory, using multi-agent reinforcement learning to capture how user decisions are shaped by past rewards across platforms. A key parame…
Political science (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Social media (8 works) · Social Media and Politics (8 works) · Law (6 works) · Misinformation and Its Impacts (6 works) · Politics (6 works) · Data science (5 works) · Media studies (5 works)