iNIMBY? The potential of automated social media bots to create echo chambers in the online participatory planning discourse

Hartt, Maxwell, Cantlay, Stephanie, Hollander, Justin B., Potts, Ruth ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8681-4309 and Seto, Alexander 2024. iNIMBY? The potential of automated social media bots to create echo chambers in the online participatory planning discourse. International Planning Studies 29 (4) , pp. 436-448. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

Online participatory planning processes are cheaper, easier, and may reach a broader audience than in-person techniques. However, they are also vulnerable to disruption from automated social bots. This research introduces a bespoke planning-oriented social bot, Urbanist Uma, to explore if and how social bots contribute to echo chambers that may influence planning processes. After four years on Twitter, Urbanist Uma had almost 250 followers and her Tweets had been viewed tens of thousands of times. The high level of homophily in Uma’s network demonstrates the need for planners to recognize both the opportunity and risk of the digital public sphere.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	Geography and Planning (GEOPL)
Publisher:	Taylor and Francis Group
ISSN:	1356-3475
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	25 November 2024
Date of Acceptance:	19 November 2024
Last Modified:	10 Dec 2024 16:00
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/174288

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