Week 10: Mapping Twitter Topic Networks:
From Polarized Crowds to Community Clusters
Political conversations on Twitter: The Aftermath of the
Elections
By Faith Vietti
November 6, 2014
While
I am not fond of political conversations in any form, I did see how polarized
crowds and community clusters formed during and after the November 4th
elections in the U.S. through the use of Twitter. The polarized crowd network
structure fell into one dominant archetype, which is best described as polarized
crowds of Democrats and Republicans. These “two big and dense groups have
little connection between themselves, and engage in highly divisive and heated
political subjects.” Even though the heated topics between Democrats and
Republicans are many, the main outcome of the November 4, 2014 election was
that of the Democrats losing the senate to the Republicans. Twitter and tweets
were telling and used by these polarized communities to carry their campaign
messages.
Prior
to the election, the Democrats tweeted their campaign slogans to motivate
constituents with emotive language to move them to action.
“The
Democrats tweet: @TheDemocrats Don’t forget what we’re fighting for. Vote for
Democrats tomorrow: pollingplaces.democrats.org”
However, what followed the November
4th election was a sense of defeat among the democrats having lost the
senate to the Republicans. In response to the monumental loss, tweets for
“hope” emerged.
Democratic community cluster
The role of the Democratic
community cluster ignored the Republicans and used different web sources with
different hashtags. To illustrate, a message from Chair Wasserman Schultz emerged
stating that the Democrats “Got to do better. Focus, review, and press forward.
The tweets:
@TheDemocrats No one wants to repeat Tuesday night - @DWStweets wants you to
join the conversation on our midterm strategy: http://bit.ly/1zCTPoT
The US
is moving left despite Republican gains— by @saletan via @Slate http://read.bi/1tNfaau
Republican community clusters
The Republican community clusters
followed in suite as they ignored the Democrats while speaking to their party
views on what transpired on November 4th while using different web
sources with different hashtags.
The Midterm Results: "The political momentum in
Washington clearly is with a resurgent Republican Party." http://ow.ly/E0PpZ
CFR follows
We need all hands on deck for 2016.Dear Democratic Party:
Make No Mistake About It, Republicans Didn’t Win – You Lost http://www.forwardprogressives.com/dear-democratic-party-make-mistake-republicans-didnt-win-lost/ …
Here's what a Republican takeover looks like: http://trib.al/1ez6o1M
Republican Election Victory Seen as Positive for Business, but
Others Temper Expectations http://nyti.ms/1y4agqc Expand
Republican have gained control over the U.S. Senate. What this
means for education: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2014/11/republicans_will_control_senate.html?cmp=soc-edit-tw …
#edpolitics
According to @dbrauer the highest
percentage of votes for Republican @Jeff4Gov
(30.6%) in #mpls
came from the #UMN's
frat row. #Election2014
AACC's SVP of gov
relations, David Baime in @insidehighered's
What a GOP-Led Congress Means for Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/1wxtWVa Washington Post follows
Voice of America -
Republican Control of Congress Could Force Changes in US Foreign Policy http://bit.ly/1uwaUit
The 2014
electorate wasn't just older and whiter than 2012. It also voted more Republican.
http://wapo.st/1y3MSZQ
In short,
what the political conversations on Twitter showed us in the aftermath of the
elections is as Pew
Research indicated, and that is “if a topic is political, it is common to see
two separate, polarized crowds take shape.” And of course, we did through the “conversations
on Twitter by the Democrats and the Republicans that created networks with identifiable
contours as people replied to and mentioned one another in their tweets.”
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