Abstract
This paper examines the Twitter networking pattern of “following” and “mention” relationships between South Korean politicians. The data were obtained from the Twitter profiles of Korea’s national assemblymen and the most influential political figures. We conducted social network techniques including exponential random graph model and a regression method. The results suggest that these politicians employ two different strategies to establish relationships with other politicians on Twitter. One is “following” other politicians as a social ritual based on dyadic reciprocity, and the other is to “mention” other politicians as asymmetric political support based on the public popularity of their peers on Twitter.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Barabási A.L., Albert E.: Emergence of scaling in random networks. Science 286, 509–512 (1999)
Benkler Y.: The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. Yale University Press, New Haven (2007)
Bimber B.: The study of information technology and civic engagement. Political Commun 17(4), 329–333 (2000)
Borgatti S.P., Mehra A., Brass D.J., Labianca G.: Network analysis in the social sciences. Science 323, 892–895 (2009)
Bosker, B.: Twitter: we now have over 200 million accounts (update). Huffpost Tech. Retrieved May 26, 2011, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/28/twitter-number-of-users_n_855177.html (2011)
Burkett, T., Skvoretz, J.: Political support networks among US senators: stability and change from 1973–1990. Unpublished manuscript. http://web1.cas.usf.edu/MAIN/include/0-1201-000/polsupportnet.pdf (2001)
Chang W.: The cyber balkanization and structural transformation of the public sphere in Korea. J. Contemp. East. Asia. 7(2), 29–48 (2008)
Chi, F., Yang, N.: Twitter adoption in congress. Rev. Netw. Econ. 10(1) (2011). http://www.bepress.com/rne/vol10/iss1/3
Dahlgren P.: The Internet, public spheres, and political communication: dispersion and deliberation. Political Commun 22(2), 147–162 (2005)
Doreian P.,Teuter K., Wang C.: Network autocorrelation models: some monte carlo results. Sociol. Methods Res. 13(2), 155–200 (1984)
Fowler J.H.: Connecting the congress: a study of cosponsorship networks. Political Anal 14(4), 456–487 (2006)
Glassman, M.E., Straus, J.E., Shogan, C.J.: Social networking and constituent communication: member use of Twitter during a two-month period in the 111th congress. Congressional Research Reservice. http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/R41066_20100203.pdf (2010)
Granovetter M.: Economic action and social structure: the problem of embeddedness. Am. J. Sociol. 91(3), 481–510 (1985)
Habermas J.: Political communication in media society: does democracy still enjoy an epistemic dimension? The impact of normative theory on empirical research. Commun. Theory 16(4), 411–426 (2006)
Hansen D., Shneiderman B., Smith M.A.: Social Media: New Technologies of Collaboration. Analyzing Social Media Networks with NodeXL: Insights from a Connected World, pp. 11–39. Morgan Kaufmann, Burlington (2010)
Highfield T., Kirchhoff L., Nicolai T.: Challenges of tracking optical discussion networks online. Soc. Sci. Comput. Rev. 29((3), 340–353 (2011)
Hindman M.: The Myth of Digital Democracy. Princeton University Press, Princeton (2009)
Hogan B.: The presentation of self in the age of social media: distinguishing performances and exhibitions online. Bull. Sci. Technol. Soc. 20(6), 377–386 (2010)
Holland P.W., Leinhardt S.: Holland and Leinhardt reply: some evidence on the transitivity of positive interpersonal sentiment. Am. J. Sociol. 77(6), 1205–1209 (1972)
Hsu C., Park H.W.: Sociology of hyperlink networks of Web 1.0, Web 2.0, and Twitter: a case study of South Korea. Soc. Sci. Comput. Rev. 29(3), 354–368 (2011)
Jansen B., Zhang M., Sobel K., Chowdury A.: Twitter power: tweets as electronic word of mouth. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Technol. 60(11), 2169–2188 (2009)
Kim J.H., Barnett G.A., Park H.W.: A hyperlink and issue network analysis of the United States senate: a rediscovery of Web as a relational and topical medium. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Technol. 61(8), 1598–1611 (2010)
Kim M.J., Park H.W.: Measuring Twitter-based political participation and deliberation in the South Korean context by using social network and triple helix indicators. Scientometrics 90(1), 121–140 (2012)
Korea Internet Security Agency: Internet usage statistics. http://isis.kisa.or.kr/sub02/?pageId=020200# (2011)
Leenders R.T.A.J.: Modeling social influence through network autocorrelation: constructing the weight matrix. Social Netw. 24(1), 21–47 (2002)
Monge P.R., Contractor N.S.: Theories of Communication Networks. Oxford University Press, Oxford (2003)
Moody J., White D.R.: Structural cohesion and embeddedness: a hierarchical concept of social groups. Am. Soc. Rev. 68(1), 103–127 (2003)
Naaman, M., Boase, J., Lai, C.: Is it really about me? Message content in social awareness streams. In: Proceedings of the 2010 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, Savannah, pp. 189–192. ACM, New York (2010)
Newsweek: Who’s winning the Twitter wars? http://www.newsweek.com/2009/09/08/who-s-winning-the-twitter-wars.html (2009)
OikoLab: Twitter Korean index. http://tki.oiko.cc/ (2010)
Park H.W., Lee Y.O.: The Korean presidential election of 2007: five years on from the “internet election”. J. Contemp. East. Asia. 7(1), 1–4 (2008)
Park H.W., Kluver R.: Trends in online networking among South Korean politicians. Gov. Inf. Q. 26(3), 505–515 (2009)
Park H.W., Thelwall M.: Link analysis: hyperlink patterns and social structure on politicians’ web sites in South Korea. Qual. Quant. 42(5), 687–697 (2008)
Park H.W., Kim C.S., Barnett G.A.: Socio-communicational structural among political actors on the web in South Korea. New Media Soc 6(3), 403–423 (2004)
Park S.J., Lim Y.S., Sams S., Nam S.M., Park H.W.: Networked politics on Cyworld: the text and sentiment of Korean political profiles. Soc. Sci. Comput. Rev. 29(3), 288–299 (2011)
Peng W., Sharpe K., Robins G.L., Pattison P.E.: Exponential random graph (p*) models for affiliation networks. Soc. Netw. 31(1), 12–25 (2009)
Plotkowiak, T., Ebermann, J., Stanoevska-Slabeva, K.: A longitudinal social network analysis of German politicians’ Twitter accounts. In: Proceedings of Sunbelt Annual Conference, Riva del Garda (2010)
Podolny J.M.: Networks as the pipes and prisms of the market. Am. J. Sociol. 107(1), 33–60 (2001)
Robins G., Pattison P., Kalish Y., Lusher D.: An introduction to exponential random graph (p*) models for social networks. Soc. Netw. 29(2), 173–191 (2007)
Shumate M., Lipp J.: Connective collective action online: an examination of the hyperlink network structure of an NGO issue network. J. Comput. Mediat. Commun. 14(1), 178–201 (2008)
Smith, A.: 22% of online Americans used social networking or Twitter for politics in 2010 campaign. Pew Research Center. http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Politics-and-social-media.aspx (2011)
Sunstein C.R.: Republic.com 2.0.. Princeton University Press, Princeton (2007)
Tumasjan, A., Sprenger, T.O., Sandner, P.G., Welpe, I.M.: Predicting elections with Twitter: What 140 characters reveal about political sentiment. In: Proceedings of the Fourth International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media, Washington, DC (2010)
Wasserman S., Faust K.: Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications. Cambridge University Press, New York (1994)
Web Ecology Project: The Iranian election on Twitter: the first eighteen days. http://www.webecologyproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/WEP-twitterFINAL.pdf (2009)
Wilson R.K., Young C.D.: Cosponsorship in the United States congress. Legislative Stud. Q. 22(1), 24–43 (1997)
Zhang Y., Friend A.J., Traud A.L., Porter M.A., Folwer J.H., Mucha P.J.: Community structure in congressional cosponsorship networks. Phys. A 387(7), 1705–1712 (2008)
Zhao, D., Rosson, M.B.: How and why people Twitter: the role that micro-blogging plays in informal communication at work. In: Proceedings of the ACM 2009 International Conference on Supporting Group Work, Sanibel Island, pp. 243–252. ACM, New York (2009)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Yoon, H.Y., Park, H.W. Strategies affecting Twitter-based networking pattern of South Korean politicians: social network analysis and exponential random graph model. Qual Quant 48, 409–423 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-012-9777-1
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-012-9777-1