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                            Funding & Awards
 Radicalization on the Internet: Virtual Extremism in the US from 2012-2017
Note:
              This awardee has received supplemental funding. This award detail page includes information about both the original award and supplemental awards.
Award Information
Awardee
              Arkansas State University
Award #
              2014-ZA-BX-0014
Funding Category
              Competitive
Location
                    State University, AR
Awardee County
              Craighead
Congressional District
              1
Status
              Closed
Funding First Awarded
              2014
Total funding (to date)
              $769,906
Original Solicitation
              NIJ FY 14 Research and Evaluation on Domestic Radicalization to Violent Extremism
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2014, $261,503)
Since 2001, the nation's counterterrorism efforts have primarily focused on international terrorism.  However, during this period, domestic extremists have committed several deadly attacks. Many of these homegrown terrorists use the Internet to organize like-minded individuals, disseminate their ideas, and recruit new members. Our study will examine these violent domestic extremists'individuals and groups that "support or commit ideologically motivated violence to further political, social, or religious goals" (U.S. Dept. of Justice 2014:4).
Our study has three primary objectives:
1. Identify active online extremist groups based in the United States by collecting information about a variety of groups, including extremist religious, nationalist, political, and ethnicity-based groups.
2. Create preliminary virtual profiles of predominant extremist groups, resulting in the construction of ideological maps and the identification frame intersections.
3. Discern the effect online extremist material has on individuals who see it and which types of material is most influential.
To meet these objectives, we use overlapping methodologies. First, we use Dynamics of Collective Action Project (see http://www.stanford.edu/group/collectiveaction/cgi-bin/drupal/) and American Terrorism Study (ATS) data sets to establish a baseline for frequently active extremist groups over time. This allows us to understand the ebb and flow of extremist activity as well as to identify extremist groups that are most prominent in the U.S.
Second, building on the baseline of extremist activities, we will use Web crawling/spidering techniques to locate current U.S.-based virtual extremist enclaves. This data will be used in two ways:
a. We will use QDA Miner to analyse subtle similarities in raw data to create conceptual maps of extremist ideologies, breaking down their requisite phrasing and keyword usage. To facilitate interpretation of our results and assist law enforcement with the practical application of our findings, we will use qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), an analytical tool which allows for a greater understanding of extremist ideological frames.
b. We will conduct a virtual ethnography of several domestic extremist groups. Using thick description to form a virtual ethnography of extremist profiles, we will identify ways extremists use Internet functionalities (i.e. YouTube, homepages, blogs) to recruit and sustain their movements and worldviews. Based on this sample, we will establish preliminary profiles of specific extremist groups.
Third, building on the identified extremist enclaves, their scope, and qualities, we will use an online survey of Americans ages 15 to 35 to estimate the extent to which people are exposed to and influenced by online extremism. We will assess characteristics associated with the exposure to and/or adoption of extremist ideas via the web, comparing and contrasting the internet functionalities extremist groups use and which functionalities and content individuals see as influential.
Thus, our objective is to parse out, catalogue, and analyse how violent domestic extremist groups use the Internet and what impacts it can have on users, particularly youth. This study will help authorities and communities identify and counteract radicalization.  ca/ncf
Supplemental Award 1 (Fiscal Year 2015, $508,403)
Since 2001, the nations counterterrorism efforts have primarily focused on international terrorism. However, recent tragic attacks in Charleston, SC, and Chattanooga, TN, remind us of domestic threats. Many extremist groups use the Internet to organize like-minded individuals,
disseminate ideas, and recruit new memberssome which become homegrown terrorists. Our study will examine these violent domestic extremistsindividuals and groups that "support or commit ideologically motivated violence to further political, social, or religious goals" (U.S. Dept. of Justice 2014:4).
Our study has four primary objectives:
1. Identify active online U.S.-based extremist groups
2. Create virtual profiles of extremist groups.
3. Elaborate the frames of extremism.
4. Discern effects online extremist material has on individuals who see it and which types of material is most influential.
To meet these objectives, we use overlapping methodologies. First, we conduct Web Crawling of (1) approximately 800 extremist organizational websites, and, (2) issue, topic, and concept based searches of extremist activity not directly linked to organizations (i.e. Twitter feeds). Using Python and QDA Miner software we analyse data from extremist organizations to find more subversive extremist materials. This provides an opportunity to examine relationships between organizations and individual (or lone wolf) radicalization processes for extremist religious, nationalist, political, environmental, militia/patriot, and ethnicity-based groups and ideologies.
Next, we use thick description to form a virtual ethnography of extremist profiles and contentfocused frame analysis to identify how different extremists use particular Internet functionalities (i.e. YouTube, home pages, Facebook, blogs) to recruit and sustain their movements. We will follow cases longitudinally to understand the emergence, development and dissemination of online extremism. We will then conduct a qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). QCA is an analytical method geared towards causation analysis that disaggregates large volumes of discourses within sampled data into its constitutive components and identifies topic frequency,
discursive space, topic intersection, and frame intersections. Finally, we use an online survey of Americans ages 15 to 35 to estimate the extent to which people are exposed to online extremism. We assess characteristics associated with the exposure to and/or adoption of extremist ideas. In years 2 and 3, we will add survey modules with questions derived from the Web Crawling results.
Our objective is to parse out, catalogue, and analyse how violent domestic extremist groups use the Internet and what impacts it can have on users, particularly youth. This study will help authorities and communities identify and counteract radicalization.
Note: This project contains a research and/or development component, as defined in applicable law.
nca/ncf


  
Grant-Funded Publications
        
                      The Enthymemes of Supporting President Trump: Explaining the Association Between Structural Location, Supporting the President, and Agreeing With Online Extremism
                  Utilizing criminological theories to predict involvement in cyberviolence among the iGeneration
                  Viewing Anti-Immigrant Hate Online: An Application of Routine Activity and Social Structure-Social Learning Theory
                  Viewing anti-immigrant hate online: An application of routine activity and Social Structure-Social Learning Theory
                  When Patriot Becomes Hate-triot: The Relationship Between American Identity and the Production of Cyberhate
                  Who Produces Online Hate?: An Examination of the Effects of Self-Control, Social Structure, & Social Learning
                  "We All Have Stories": Black Muslim Immigrants' Experience With the Police
                  Predictors of Viewing Online Extremism Among America's Youth
                  Cyber-Routines, Political Attitudes, and Exposure to Violence-Advocating Online Extremism
                  Radicalization on the Internet: Virtual Extremism in the U.S. from 2012-2017
                  Social Group Identity and Perceptions of Online Hate
                  We Don't Like Your Type Around Here: Regional and Residential Differences in Exposure to Online Hate Material Targeting Sexuality
                  We Don't Like Your Type Around Here: Regional and Residential Differences in Exposure to Online Hate Material targeting sexuality
                  Who Are the Online Extremists Among Us? Sociodemographic Characteristics, Social Networking, and Online Experiences of Those Who Produce Online Hate Materials
                  Virtually Standing Up or Standing By? Correlates of Enacting Social Control Online
                  Conflict Management Styles and Cybervictimization: Extending Routine Activity Theory
                  Confronting Online Extremism: The Effect of Self-Help, Collective Efficacy, and Guardianship on Being a Target for Hate Speech
                  Who Views Online Extremism? Individual Attributes Leading to Exposure
                  Confronting Online Extremism - The Effect of Self-Help, Collective Efficacy, and Guardianship on Being a Target for Hate Speech




  
Grant-Funded Datasets
        
                      https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR37679.v1

  
Date Created: September 17, 2014
    
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