U.S. Religious Landscape on Twitter

Religiosity is a powerful force shaping human societies, affecting domains as diverse as economic growth or the ability to cope with illness. As more religious leaders and organizations as well as believers start using social networking sites (e.g., Twitter, Facebook), online activities become important extensions to traditional religious rituals and practices. However, there has been lack of research on religiosity in online social networks. This paper takes a step toward the understanding of several important aspects of religiosity on Twitter, based on the analysis of more than 250k U.S. users who self-declared their religions/belief, including Atheism, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism. Specifically, (i) we examine the correlation of geographic distribution of religious people between Twitter and offline surveys. (ii) We analyze users’ tweets and networks to identify discriminative features of each religious group, and explore supervised methods to identify believers of different religions. (iii) We study the linkage preference of different religious groups, and observe a strong preference of Twitter users connecting to others sharing the same religion.

Dr. Louis Tuthill (assistant professor, CFAS-criminal justice) offered expert perspective on law enforcement strategies; his comments formed the majority of this news story. (more…)

Dr. Howard Gillette (professor emeritus, CFAS-history) shared research perspective on the City of Camden during an interview that appeared in this news story.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/new-jersey-gov-chris-christie-gives-and-receives-in-camden-1412129651

CURE is sponsoring MPA student Brian K. Everett to conduct the following study this Fall:

“This project will apply the previously announced rules for the construction of affordable housing units given by COAH to all of the 37 municipalities in Camden County. The goal is to show what Camden County’s affordable housing image should look like as of 2014 if the rules had been followed and enforced. My hypothesis is that Camden County should display a more distributed total of affordable units based upon COAH’s formulaic guidelines, rather than 75% of the County’s responsibility existing in Camden City alone.”  B.K. Everett

CURE and the Digital Studies Center cordially invite you to attend the Screening and Discussion of:

Documentary feature film that follows the personal stories of families struggling in the aftermath of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Filmed over the course of one winter in one American city, the film presents an intimate snapshot of the state of the nation’s economy as it is playing out in millions of American families, and highlights the human consequences of the decline of the middle class and the fracturing of the American Dream.Directors: Harry Gantz, Joe Gantz

 

Discussant:  Joe Willard | Vice President, Policy
People’s Emergency Center | 325 N. 39th Street | Philadelphia, PA 19104

Friday, September 26, 2014 – 12:00pm – 2pm
Faculty Lounge, 3rd floor, Armitage Hall
Lunch will be provided

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The event is free and open to the public.  No registration is required. 

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