TY - GEN
T1 - Effects of mass media and opinion exchange on extremist group formation
AU - Butler, Steven
AU - Bryson, Joanna J.
PY - 2007/1/1
Y1 - 2007/1/1
N2 - Contemporary communication technologies are thought to facilitate the growth of the small autonomous terrorist groups indicative of ‘modern’ terrorism. In this study, the Animal Liberation Front provides an example of a culturally distinct organisation from which an extremist force—the Animal Rights Militia—emerges to pose the threat of violence. Agent-based modelling is used to simulate this emergence, and subsequent dynamics, under a variety of conditions. The simulation model not only implements local opinion exchange within a population, but also the polarising effect of mass media. Results show the significance of mass media, of limits on the cell size that are independent of the policing efforts, and the impact of societies with rapid population turn over, such as are found near universities.
AB - Contemporary communication technologies are thought to facilitate the growth of the small autonomous terrorist groups indicative of ‘modern’ terrorism. In this study, the Animal Liberation Front provides an example of a culturally distinct organisation from which an extremist force—the Animal Rights Militia—emerges to pose the threat of violence. Agent-based modelling is used to simulate this emergence, and subsequent dynamics, under a variety of conditions. The simulation model not only implements local opinion exchange within a population, but also the polarising effect of mass media. Results show the significance of mass media, of limits on the cell size that are independent of the policing efforts, and the impact of societies with rapid population turn over, such as are found near universities.
KW - Agent-based simulation of social phenomena
KW - Cultural dynamics
KW - Opinion dynamics
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85080933273&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://essa2007.free.fr/ESSA2007Proceedings.pdf
M3 - Chapter in a published conference proceeding
T3 - Proceedings of the 4th Conference of the European Social Simulation Association, ESSA 2007
SP - 455
EP - 465
BT - Proceedings of the 4th Conference of the European Social Simulation Association, ESSA 2007
A2 - Amblard, Frederic
PB - The European Social Simulation Association (ESSA)
T2 - 4th Annual Conference of the European Social Simulation Association, ESSA 2007
Y2 - 10 September 2007 through 14 September 2007
ER -