Tweeting for Trayvon

While the not guilty verdict is in for George Zimmerman, the discussion about and ramifications of Trayvon Martin's killing seventeen months ago are only beginning, from protest marches throughout the country to tweeting with hashtags like #MillionHoodies. Plenty of people smarter than us have weighed in on what this means for the persistent racism and inequity of the justice system in the United States, so we'll leave that side of the analysis to them. But as we specialize in thinking about and analyzing the geographies of social media, we want to offer our own two cents on what we can collectively take away from the case based on an analysis of geotagged tweets reacting to George Zimmerman's acquittal for Trayvon Martin's slaying.

First, some quick notes on our methodology and general trends in the data. Using DOLLY, we collected all the geotagged tweets from July 1 through July 15, referencing either "JusticeForTrayvon" or "Not Guilty", capturing the usage of these phrases with or without an accompanying hashtag. There were a total of 27,863 tweets referencing "Not Guilty" in this time frame, and just 6,614 referencing "JusticeForTrayvon". We calculated location quotients using hexagonal binning in order to normalize the data based on a relative measure of tweeting activity, as well as to account for differential size of counties or other similarly arbitrary areal units [1]. More simply, this allows us to compare the relative level of Twitter activity in any particular location, rather than relying on raw counts which are biased by population density.

Timeline of Tweets Referencing "Trayvon" from July 13th-14th

In addition to our primary interest in the spatial dimension of tweeting, we're also able to visualize a timeline of tweeting activity, which shows a clear spike immediately following the verdict on Saturday evening around 10 pm. While we're sure that many people's timelines were filled with reactions to the verdict throughout the day on Sunday, it seems as though much of the tweeting became more dissipated throughout the day as protests heated up and others went back to their usual routines.

Taking a look at the spatial patterns of these keywords, there are some clear differences. While there are many fewer JusticeForTrayvon tweets overall, they tend to be generally scattered, but with some relative concentrations largely in the south, in cities like Shreveport and Alexandria, Louisiana and Durham, North Carolina. Again, these measured are normalized for overall level of Twitter activity and thus show that these places were more engaged in this topic via Twitter than other parts of the country.

References to Not Guilty, however, in addition to being far more prevalent, demonstrate significantly more clustering in areas of the country outside the south, especially in Texas (depending on whether or not you consider it to be Southern) and some of the Midwestern or Mid-Atlantic states. We should note that there is a greater concentration references to Not Guilty in the vicinity of Sanford, Florida, the location of Trayvon Martin's killing and the subsequent trial, than was visible in references to JusticeForTrayvon. 

It is also important to note, however, that large cities on the west coast, like Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle, have relatively little tweeting about the case for either term, as do major cities along the eastern seaboard, like New York, Boston, D.C. and Philadelphia, despite being the sites of the major protests following the verdict.

Comparing references to the two terms -- while keeping in mind that they are not entirely oppositional, i.e., "Not Guilty" is a much more neutral and contextually dependent phrase than JusticeforTrayvon, which explicitly 'takes sides' in this debate -- reveals a much clearer geographic pattern. This comparison brings the different geographies of these phrases into a stark contrast, with many more references to JusticeforTrayvon concentrated throughout the southern states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Kentucky (highlighted in purple), with a greater number of more generic references to the verdict (highlighted in green) scattered throughout much of the rest of the country. In short, the hashtag that is more closely associated with protesting the outcome of the court case, is more highly concentrated in Southern states.

One thing that is clear is that although the experience of racism isn't unique to the American South, it is uniquely associated with and experienced in that place when viewed through geotagged social media content [2]. This isn't to say that the tweeting about the case throughout the south is, in and of itself racist, as many, if not most, tweets express outrage at Zimmerman's acquittal, as evidenced by the large number of tweets referencing the JusticeForTrayvon hashtag. But given the back-and-forth around the particularity of racism in the south or the universality of racism across the United States, the higher concentration of this Twitter discussion within the region suggests a process distinct from the rest of the country.

The fact that Trayvon Martin's killing took place in Florida, which shares a similar history with regard to race as the rest of the south, has clearly elicited a broader reaction from those in a (relatively) similar geographic context. The complexities of racism (both historical and contemporary) as expressed in part through problematically-enforced laws like stand-your-ground come to the fore in the south at a time like this, as can be seen in the much higher-than-usual tweeting about the case in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas. If anything, the outpouring of tweets throughout the south in support of the Martin family and in favor of a more sensible and equitable justice system serves to destabilize the common narrative that the south is unitary, coherent region populated by those clinging to nineteenth century racial mores. The south is, like any other place, marked by conflict and contradiction, something evident nowhere more than in the way it continues to deal with (or ignore) persistent racial inequality like that seen in Trayvon Martin's killing and George Zimmerman's acquittal.
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[1] We've previously demonstrated the utility of this method for mapping concentrations of tweets about a given phenomena.
[2] See, for example, our work on mapping racist tweets in response to President Obama's re-election last November.

Preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse, Part V: Artifacts of Zombie Elimination

The following is an excerpt of our upcoming chapter in the edited collection Zombies in the Academy: Living Death in Higher Education.

As we try to move our analysis beyond the simple mapping of references to “zombies”, as was shown in Part IV, references to other zombie-related keywords can be particularly revealing of a variety of socio-spatial patterns, whether they be medically related keywords, such as Max Brooks’ fictitious “solanum” virus, or even a comparison between the relative presence of the zombie food source “brains”, as compared to what we presume to be the inverse, “salad”. While these selections are certainly amusing, they provide little insight on the connection between the zombie metaphor in the geoweb and the lived realities of different people. A potentially better line of exploration lies in mapping references to various material artifacts related to zombies, in this case the weapons used to kill zombies in literature and cinema. After all, upon finding out where exactly the zombies are, the next task usually involves getting rid of them.

Using the following keywords – “machete”, “shotgun”, “crowbar”, “AK-47” and “flamethrower” – we mapped the relative prevalence of each term across Europe and the US. As is par for the Floatingsheep course, each color dot signifies a point at which there are more references to that keyword than any of the other four weapons. Although this does not take into account the absolute number of references to each keyword, it highlights the dominance of references to any particular weapon and its concomitant cultural implications in a particular place.

Zombie Elimination Artifacts in Europe

There are three noticeable spatial patterns visible in the first map. First, a cluster of references to AK-47s exists in the former Eastern bloc countries. Given the weapon’s origin within the Soviet Union, the prevalence of references in Eastern Europe is unsurprising. Second, the dominance of references to shotgun in Great Britain is the most noticeable pattern, especially because it broadly conforms to the boundaries of the island. Third is the fact that most locations within Europe have no references to any of these keywords, a fact that indicates that their usage on the internet, like that of zombies, is concentrated in very particular places.

The references to weapons in these maps have the effect of mirroring distinct socio-cultural traits in offline, material practices. The second map, depicting the same keywords mapped across the United States, is, like England, blanketed with references to shotguns. This, compared with the dearth of references to any of these weapons throughout much of Europe, is indicative of a greater degree of the embeddedness of the artifact of the shotgun in the cultural practices (e.g., real or perceived levels of violence), and by extension the virtual representations, of some parts of the world.

Zombie Elimination Artifacts in the United States

While not resolving the debate of whether “guns kill people” or “people kill people”, this analysis makes evident that in the event of a zombie horde, shotguns would likely be killing zombies in the British Isles and the USA. On the other hand, continental Europe would likely draw upon a mélange of machetes, crowbars, Kalashnikovs and the occasional flamethrower. Choose your weapons carefully, friends.

Be sure to check out the previous iterations of our Preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse series in Parts I, II, III and IV.

The many guns of urban America

God and guns keep us strong
That's what this country was founded on
Well we might as well give up and run
If we let them take our God and guns
-Lynyrd Skynyrd, "God and Guns"

As we have shown in earlier maps (here and here) guns have become a central fixture of the American landscape.

And often proponents of the Second Amendment are associated with a predominantly rural, religious and conservative population as exemplified by the above song lyric. Whether or not this is because rural Americans are 'bitter', the stereotype remains pervasive. However, when we map the number of user-generated Google Maps placemarks mentioning the word "gun", a much different pattern emerges.

Absolute Number of Guns in User-Generated Placemarks

Although the smaller dots peppered throughout the rural United States certainly show that guns maintain a presence in the rural landscape, the highest concentrations of guns in user-generated placemarks are undoubtedly found in the nation's urban centers.

Relative Specialization in Guns in User-Generated Placemarks

By focusing instead on those places with a higher-than-average number of placemarks with the word "gun", the concentration in urban areas becomes more obvious - rural areas are all but wiped off the map of indexed values. A plausible explanation would simply say that the prevalence of guns is more a function of population (more references to guns because there are more people) than of a stylized cultural trait.

Or could the differences in user-generated content been explained, at least in part, by a digital divide between urban and rural Americans? For example, rural Americans could simply be too busy actually using their guns to worry about adding user-generated placemarks to Google Maps? We should also note that the meaning of a reference to the word "gun" in a placemark is not straightforward. In other words, it could be a protest against guns or, alternatively, an affirmation of them.

Unfortunately, we end with an entirely new set of questions and are left clinging to conjecture, just as much of America remains clinging to their guns.

The Great American "Pizza" Map

Having spent considerable time over the past months analyzing the distribution of a number of strangely juxtaposed social phenomenon (ranging from religion to bars), today's map should come as no surprise to anyone. After all, isn't the comparison between the number of user generated references to "pizza", "guns" or "strip club" an obvious one to make? Perhaps not, but we're doing it anyway.

To our knowledge this is the first time that this particular set of fractures within American society have been mapped. And it is likely to be the last time as well, so don't blink.

The Great American "Pizza" Map

The map reveals that America seems to be largely pro-pizza with the red dots of pizza spreading across the landscape (the Midwest and Northeast seem particularly well endowed) like a rich and robust tomato sauce. Perhaps there is something after all that everyone can agree upon. (Although the unity behind pizza would likely break down over a fight between "New York" and "Chicago" styles.)

Moreover, there are a number of clusters -- represented by green dots – with more references to guns than pizza. We're not quite sure what life there is like (as we live in a particularly large swath of sauce) but it does give one pause for thought. Are these patches of green olives? Peppers? Jalapeños? Pesto? In any cases, these clusters are predominately rural areas – where apparently there are more guns than pizza.

Lastly one sees a few scattered locations where strip clubs are more popular (we're looking at you Las Vegas) than either guns or pizza. Much like the token scattering of pineapple that one is forced to endure on pizza (there's always one person who suggests it!), strip clubs represents a decidedly marginal activity in the aggregation of human experience illustrated in this map.

In any case, this post has made us hungry so we're off to grab a slice.

What do church, bowling, firearms and strip clubs have in common?

One answer (or at least the one we're willing to print) is that they all represent ways in which Americans can spend their time. But which parts of North America are more focused on one or the other? Or, more precisely, where are the resources for each activity more available? Using the number of listings indexed by the Google Maps directory[1], the map below visualizes the comparative prevalence of churches, bowling alleys, guns and strip clubs across the US (as well as parts of Canada and Mexico). Each point is color coded according to which activity had the most number of hits in the Google Maps directory.

Upon first glance, it is easy to see the relative supremacy of two topics, churches (in blue) and guns (in green), which cover most of the points in North America. Churches dominate throughout most of the southeast and upper midwest (echoing our findings from the virtual bible belt map) while the Northeast, the West and much of Canada show a higher number of listings for guns. One should not, however, interpret this to mean that guns are more prevalent in Canada than the southern U.S. (which clearly does not equate with the offline reality). Instead, the Northeast and Canada have relatively fewer listings for churches than in the south, leading them to be color coded with the next leading activity, i.e., guns. Likewise, there are plenty of gun listings in the southeastern United States, they are simply overshadowed by the listings for churches.

Of more interest are the small pockets in which either bowling alleys or strip clubs are most numerous, bucking the near-universal trend focused on guns and church. For example, there is a prevalence of strip clubs around Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada, as well as Los Angeles, California. Additionally, Canadian cities seem particularly well represented with clusters in Montreal, the Buffalo-Toronto corridor and the Seattle-Vancouver region. Interestingly enough, there seems to be some correspondence (especially in the Northwest US and Toronto) with our map outlining user-generated definitions of fun.

The small pockets of strip clubs around eastern Tennessee along the North Carolina and Georgia borders seem inexplicable, until one considers the advertising landscape along the I-75 corridor, in which religious and pornographic iconography are ubiquitously juxtaposed.

The few areas in which the bowling alleys outnumber churches, guns and strip clubs, are more difficult to explain. There seems to be little rhyme or reason for these bowling hot spots, as they do not correspond well with places with a relative specialization in bowling alleys. The areas shown in red are exclusively rural, so their classification may simply be a result of there not being much else there. Or their residents could really like their bowling. In any case, we plan on contacting Robert Putnam and seeing if he can offer any insight on this.


[1] Google Maps directories are drawn from a range of sources such as yellow page listings. This category is distinct from and excludes user-generated placemarks used in other maps found on Floatingsheep.