Who Did Spanish Politicians Start Following on Twitter? Homophilic Tendencies among the Political Elite

Verónica Israel-Turim, Josep Lluís Micó-Sanz and Miriam Diez Bosch
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Verónica Israel-Turim: Blanquerna School of Communications and International Relations, Ramon Llull University, 08022 Barcelona, Spain
Josep Lluís Micó-Sanz: Blanquerna School of Communications and International Relations, Ramon Llull University, 08022 Barcelona, Spain
Miriam Diez Bosch: Blanquerna School of Communications and International Relations, Ramon Llull University, 08022 Barcelona, Spain

Social Sciences, 2022, vol. 11, issue 7, 1-19

Abstract: Political communication has undergone transformations since the advent of digital networks, but do these new platforms promote interactivity and a public sphere with a more democratic political debate or do they function as echo chambers of the elites? In this research, we study the accounts that Spanish politicians started following on Twitter from 2017 to 2020, with the aim of understanding whether they reproduce patterns of homophilic tendencies or if they give space to new voices. To do so, we selected a sample from the deputies that were in the Spanish parliament during the four years of the study and through a big data and machine learning software, we identified the accounts they started following as a network and categorized them. We combined manual and computational data analysis methods and used data visualization techniques to look for patterns and trends. The results suggest that the Spanish political elites exhibit homophilic behaviors in terms of account types and geographic proximity and present a gender balance among the accounts. This study also suggests that the behavior of the political elite presented particularities during the electoral period, where we can observe an intensification of the homophilic patterns.

Keywords: political communication; Twitter; homophily; social network analysis; social media; power elites; data visualization; echo chambers; digital communication; digital social networks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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