At the i2 User Conference we
realized that people have started gaining a better appreciation for
comprehensive societal knowledge. There is no website in the United States that
can provide domestic cultural knowledge on a greater level than reddit.
What Is Reddit?
Reddit is a social media platform that allows redditors (users) to share
content with one another. The structure and the language patterns of reddit are
similar to that of a traditional online forum. Redditors customize their reddit
experience by subscribing to subreddits (essentially subforums) about topics of
interest. The content is shared on reddit as links and text (“self”) posts on
subreddits, and redditors upvote and downvote content based upon their personal
preferences. These votes influence what individual users see on their reddit
front (feed/homepage).
What Can You Learn From Reddit?
Unlike more traditional social media sites such as Facebook or LinkedIn,
reddit is not typically a site in which you learn about an individual user.
Most redditors are anonymous and make it difficult to ascertain their true
identity. Reddit is typically used more to share and identify online content.
There are four major types of information redditors can access: breaking news, general
cultural trends, topical knowledge, and subculture familiarity.
Many times, we have identified breaking events on reddit before they hit
major news outlets, which allowed us to have better situational awareness than
if we had relied on traditional news media. Reddit also provides us with an
abundance of cultural memes on the Internet; this allows our investigators and
analysts to more accurately discern the meaning of social media posts made by
persons of interest.
One of the best things about reddit is that there is a subreddit for
almost anything, which allows us to learn about almost any topic or subculture
of interest. Want to know more about or ask questions to law enforcement
officers? Subscribe to ProtectAndServe.
Interested in video footage of combat? Check out CombatFootage. Need
to know more about marijuana users and production? Visit Trees (not to
be confused with MarijuanaEnthusiasts which
is actually about trees). There is very little limit to what you can learn from
reddit.
How Can You Use Information Found
on Reddit?
Fundamentally, reddit makes you a better investigator by providing you
with the general cultural knowledge you need to complete almost any task. No
matter who or what the subject is at hand, you can learn more about it. Often,
subreddits will even identify external websites associated with the content
found in the subreddit. From learning about a person of interest’s subcultural
groups and language patterns to keeping up with changes in information
technology, reddit can provide a great starting point for your research.
