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Elite Tweets: Analyzing the Twitter Communication Patterns of Labour Party Peers in the House of Lord.

Adi, A., Erickson, K. and Lilleker, D., 2014. Elite Tweets: Analyzing the Twitter Communication Patterns of Labour Party Peers in the House of Lord. Policy & Internet, 6 (1), 1 - 27 .

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DOI: 10.1002/1944-2866.POI350

Abstract

The microblogging platform Twitter has gained notoriety for its status as both a communication channel between private individuals and as a public forum monitored by journalists, the public, and the state. Its potential application for political communication has not gone unnoticed; politicians have used Twitter to attract voters, interact with constituencies and advance issue-based campaigns. This article reports findings from the research team's work with 21 peers sitting on the Labour frontbench. The researchers monitored and archived the peers' activity on Twitter for a period of 3 months between June and September 2012. Using a sample of 4,363 tweets and a mixed methodology combining semantic analysis, social network analysis, and quantitative analysis, this article explores the peers' patterns of usage and communication on Twitter. Key findings are that as a tweeting community their behavior is consistent with other communities. However, there is evidence that a coherent strategy is lacking in their coordinated use of the platform. Labour peers tend to work in small, clustered networks of self-interest as opposed to collectively to promote party policy.

Item Type:Article
ISSN:1944-2866
Uncontrolled Keywords: Twitter; social network analysis; House of Lords; elite groups; semantic analysis; U.K. Labour Party
Group:Faculty of Media & Communication
ID Code:21283
Deposited By: Symplectic RT2
Deposited On:23 Jun 2014 13:44
Last Modified:14 Mar 2022 13:49

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