A Sociotechnical View of Information Diffusion and Social Changes: From Reprint to Retweet

Presenter Information

Onook Oh, The Center for Collaboration Science, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, NE, United States.Follow
Nargess Tahmasbi, College of Information Science and Technology, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, NE, United States.Follow
H.R. Rao, Management Science and Systems, SUNY at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, United States.Follow
Gert-Jan de Vreede, The Center for Collaboration, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, NE, United States.Follow

Start Date

14-12-2012 12:00 AM

Description

This research in progress study explores the role of Twitter during the 2011 Egypt revolution. Drawing on a research method of historians who investigated the role of print technology during the Protestant Reformation in Western Europe during the early 16th century, we explicate the socio-technical implications of information diffusion through retweeting during radical social changes. Through retweet analysis, we identify inseparable dynamics of (1) existence of a few opinion leaders, (2) a large number of supporting individuals, and (3) the emergence of attendant collective sense-making process as a critical antecedent of radical social changes.

Recommended Citation

Oh, Onook; Tahmasbi, Nargess; Rao, H.R.; and Vreede, Gert-Jan de, "A Sociotechnical View of Information Diffusion and Social Changes: From Reprint to Retweet" (2012). ICIS 2012 Proceedings. 66.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2012/proceedings/ResearchInProgress/66