This project explored online discourse around the Dune film adaptations. Our objective was to compare online discourse across Mastodon and Reddit, using social web analysis techniques to visualise key themes, identify central users, and analyse topic differences. Through this, we reveal the types of conversations taking place on Reddit and the broader online community.

Data was collected from Reddit (focusing on the subreddits r/dune, r/books, and r/movies) and Mastodon using their APIs. R was employed for data analysis: embedding comments in high-dimensional space, k-means clustering to identify dominant topics, creating word clouds, and testing the relationship between subreddits and discussion themes. We also built a network of Mastodon users, using the kNN algorithm to align their posts with relevant subreddits, providing a broader community proxy.

We found that the discourse on Reddit focused on how the films were adapted, including the cast, visual design and artistic license taken by the film makers regarding their decisions to remove or change aspects of the original story. Despite constraints from API limits and computing power, we still discovered valuable insights and were highly commended by our supervisor.

This project revealed the interaction between Dune communities and discussion topics, showing the nuance within discourse surrounding the reception of a film adaptation of a beloved book series. As students studying Social Web Analytics, we were able to apply the techniques we’d learned to uncover such insights, which helped us understand the subject matter better and with greater interest.