Objective: The Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) collects open-source intelligence on social media and the internet to monitor and report on domestic threats to the US. The spring 2021 intelligence report was focused on COVID vaccine disinformation and civil unrest activity related to the pandemic. As a research fellow, I provided geospatial data and analysis to create a geographically weighted regression model (GWR) of anti-vaccine and anti-restriction protests in the US. The GWR had a predictive capacity of nearly 75% (R2 = .75), meaning that the model that was 75% accurate in predicting where COVID anti-vaccine and anti-restriction protests would occur. I built a storymap to visualize the GWR model as well as the different variables that went into the model. While the interactive maps on the storymap are no longer hosted online, the static maps still display the regression analysis. You can access the storymap by clicking on the maps on this page or you can read the formal intelligence report by clicking on the image to the left. 

Software and tools used: QGIS, ArcGIS StoryMap, R studio for statistical analysis  

Created for: Network Contagion Research Institute's (NCRI) report on A Contagion of Institutional Distrust: Viral Disinformation of the COVID Vaccine and the Road to Reconciliation.

Credit: Alexander Reid Ross who led the geographic analysis, Joel Finkelstein, the director of the NCRI, and the entire NCRI team