Polarization and Networked Framing

The Syrian and Ukrainian Refugee Crises on X/Twitter

Abstract

This exploratory study adopts a mixed-methods approach to examine the dynamics of political communication during refugee crises in German-language X (formerly Twitter), focusing on the Syrian and Ukrainian refugee influxes of September 2015 and March 2022. Using the X API, we collected 551,873 tweets related to the Syrian crisis and 236,034 tweets related to the Ukrainian crisis. The retweet networks associated with both crises were segmented into attitudinal communities by labeling them based on their position toward refugees. These networks were analyzed for polarization, community interactions and activity, influential users, and the dynamic networked framing of the crises. Our social network analysis highlighted that the online anti-refugee community exhibited greater dynamism despite being smaller in size than the pro-refugee community. Elite news media saw a decline in influence, highlighting the lack of intermediary sources between polarized users. While overall networked framing was positive about refugees during both crises, the framing of Ukrainian refugees was more complex and multifaceted. Our results underscore the disrupted state of public discourse on controversial topics and the need to reduce destructive polarization on social media.