Characterizing the Evolution of Inter-Actor Networks in the South China Sea Arbitration via Entropy-Driven Graph Representation Learning from Massive Media Event Data

TL;DR

This paper uses media event data to study how relationships between actors in the South China Sea arbitration evolved over time.

Contribution

The study introduces entropy-driven graph representation learning to analyze dynamic inter-actor networks during major international events.

Findings

Key dates in the arbitration event were linked to significant shifts in network structure.

Cooperation and conflict networks showed distinct patterns in actor roles and structural changes.

Entropy-based methods revealed evolving participation and role differentiation among actors.

Abstract

On 12 July 2016, the ruling on the South China Sea Arbitration was announced and rapidly drew worldwide attention, turning the event into a major international hotspot. Quantifying the dynamics of such hotspot events and understanding the evolution of media-based inter-actor networks during major shocks are of substantial research interest. Viewing these interactions as dynamic networks, we analyze the time-varying actor interaction structure surrounding the arbitration using the Global Database of Events, Location and Tone (GDELT), a large-scale media-based event database with global coverage since 1979. We extract nearly 30,000 events related to the arbitration from 5 July to 25 July 2016, constructing daily cooperation and conflict networks to quantify structural changes via network size and degree-entropy dynamics. To further reveal actor-level structural roles, we learn node embeddings on each daily network via an entropy-driven graph representation learning scheme and perform embedding-based clustering with automatically selected cluster numbers, visualized via t-SNE. The results show that key dates in the event window are associated with pronounced structural shifts in the networks, including changes in participation breadth, degree-distribution heterogeneity, and clearer differentiation and reconfiguration of actor roles, with distinct patterns between cooperation and conflict networks. These findings demonstrate the potential of massive media event data for characterizing structural responses and actor-role evolution in event-driven inter-actor networks.

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