Using Platform Signals for Distinguishing Discourses: The Case of Men's Rights and Men's Liberation on Reddit
Link[PLACEHOLDER: Annotation on using platform signals to distinguish between men’s rights and men’s liberation discourse communities on Reddit.]
Appears in themes
Uses machine learning classifiers and platform metadata to distinguish between r/MensRights and r/MensLib on Reddit, showing how platform signals (voting patterns, cross-posting, moderation) shape the meaning of superficially similar discourse. The same words arrive at different politics through different platform-mediated contexts.
Demonstrates how the same words ("men's rights," "discrimination," "equality") arrive at radically different meanings in r/MensRights versus r/MensLib through the integration of platform metadata ("platform signals") with text classification. Semantic meaning cannot be recovered from text alone, because the context encoded in platform structures is essential for disambiguation.