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Abstract

The recent identification of potentially extensive shale-gas resources within the United States has generated mixed public and political responses. The purpose of this study is to apply the Multilevel Model of Meme Diffusion (M³D) in an empirical case study of the fracking controversy. This analysis supports the heuristic value of the M³D and the value of digital technologies as indexes of controversial opinions, showing the potential of monitoring and registering social opinion trends with geospatially sensitive methods. This study integrates the fields of geography and computer-mediated communication technology to account for social processes.

Keywords

controversial opinions fracking meme diffusion social media

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Multilevel model of meme diffusion of fracking through Twitter

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