One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
This archival content was originally written for and published on KPCC.org. Keep in mind that links and images may no longer work — and references may be outdated.
MAP: 'Geography of Hate' map shows where racist, homophobic speech comes from on Twitter
The locations of racist tweets, according to a Humboldt State University research project.
(
Humboldt State University
)
The locations of homophobic tweets, according to a Humboldt State University research project.
(
Humboldt State University
)
The locations of racist tweets in Southern California, according to a Humboldt State University research project.
(
Humboldt State University
)
The locations of homophobic tweets in Southern California, according to a Humboldt State University research project.
(
Humboldt State University
)
Students at Humboldt State University in northern California worked to put together the interactive “Geography of Hate” map showing where tweets containing hate speech originate. You can see screenshots of racist and homophobic tweets above, from both Southern California and nationally, as defined by the project.
The students looked at tweets with location information from June 2012 through April 2013 containing one of 10 hate words, which included racist, homophobic and anti-disabled words. They looked at over 150,000 tweets, reading each one to decide whether it was being used in a negative way.
The data was aggregated down to the county level, then normalized by how many tweets were sent, so you can’t tell using the map whether the specific tweets classified as hate speech were necessarily coming from one part of the county or another.
The Huffington Post notes that the majority of hateful tweets seem to be coming from rural areas and small towns, while more populous areas like the Los Angeles region have far fewer hate tweets. Still, a pale blue coloring indicates words being used more than the national average, and there’s still some of that blue in the L.A. area. Southern California also generally shows more racist tweets than homophobic tweets, particularly against blacks.
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
