Description
Please join us for our Fall 2017 kickoff of the Digitial Humanities & D-Lab Affiliates Lecture Series + Happy Hour! For this week's event, the D-Lab Hate Speech Team will be joining us to present on their work.
Presentation
"Drawing the Boundaries of Hate Speech"
Since the launch of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, reports of hate speech targeting various minority groups have risen dramatically (Holly Yan, Kristina Sgueglia and Kylie Walker, CNN, December 22, 2016). Although this surge is well-reported, it remains difficult to identify the magnitude of the problem or even properly classify hate speech (Silva et al. 2016). Keyword searches and dictionary methods are often imprecise and overly blunt tools for detecting the nuance and complexity of hate speech. To overcome this problem and others, this study identifies and examines online incidences of hate speech, designing a research methodology that is replicable. We use qualitative coding methods to tease out the nuances of hate speech and subsequently optimize machine learning methods to catalog hate speech incidences. In the methodology section of this report, we outline best practices for quantifying and weighting themes as well as detecting the frequency of online hate speech. Using the hand-coded data we train several binary classifiers to differentiate hate speech from non-hate speech. By using a broad range of models, we are able to gain novel insights on the identification of online hate speech. We aim to set a standard for investigating online hate using a high-quality and sensitive multi-method research design.
The D-Lab Hate Speech Team
Claudia von Vacano
Laura Jakli
Geoff Bacon
Nora Broege
Ben Gebre-Medhin
Chris Hench
Chris Kennedy
Evan Muzzall
About the Series
The Digital Humanities Fellows Lecture Series brings together the campus DH community for the scholarly presentation and informal discussion of specific aspects of digital humanities practice. Each meeting a different Fellow presents their ongoing work before the conversation is opened to hands-on experimentation in addition to questions, and comments. Intended to further the critical understanding and practice of the digital humanities at Berkeley, these lectures are intended for both existing and prospective DH practitioners.