Users structure and behavior on an online social network during a political protest

A.J. Morales, J.C. Losada and R.M. Benito

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2012, vol. 391, issue 21, 5244-5253

Abstract: Over the past years, new technologies and specially online social networks have penetrated into the world’s population at an accelerated pace. In this paper we analyze collected data from the web application Twitter, in order to describe the structure and dynamics of the emergent social networks, based on complexity science. We focused on a Venezuelan protest that took place exclusively by Twitter during December, 2010. We found a community structure with highly connected hubs and three different kinds of user behavior that determine the information flow dynamics. We noticed that even though online social networks appear to be a pure social environment, traditional media still holds loads of influence inside the network.

Keywords: Complex networks; Social behavior; Information flow; Twitter (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:391:y:2012:i:21:p:5244-5253

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2012.05.015

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