Are Twitter accounts of the U.S. Senate used as points of collegial connection, constituent cultivation or coalition construction? Who is connecting with whom? To address these questions, this paper considers three types of social network data for senators collected between January and February of 2013: communication between official Twitter accounts of senators, overlap in mentions of non-Senate accounts, and overlap in mentions by non-Senate accounts. QAP analysis reveals the extent to which Senate social media relations resemble two forms of Senate political action: shared bill cosponsorship and similarity in voting. The impact of homophily, party, region and social media style on the strength of connection and similarity of action shows consistency in some aspects but varies significantly in others. Members of the Senate connect differently in different contexts; to know one form of connection is not to understand them all.
Assistant Professor of Social Science, University of Maine at Augusta
B.A. Oberlin College, Sociology, 1993
Ph.D. University of Arizona, Sociology, 2000
My research program is centered around the confluence of social media, identity and legislative politics. Particular research projects include tracking the structure of social media networks... Read More →
Saturday September 14, 2013 10:31am - 10:50am EDT
ROWE 1009