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Online Fragmentation in Wartime

Author

Listed:
  • Deen Freelon
  • Marc Lynch
  • Sean Aday

Abstract

Theorists have long predicted that like-minded individuals will tend to use social media to self-segregate into enclaves and that this tendency toward homophily will increase over time. Many studies have found moment-in-time evidence of network homophily, but very few have been able to directly measure longitudinal changes in the diversity of social media users’ habits. This is due in part to a lack of appropriate tools and methods for such investigations. This study takes a step toward developing those methods. Drawing on the complete historical record of public retweets posted between January 2011 and August 2013, we propose and justify a partial method of measuring increases or decreases in network homophily. We demonstrate that Twitter network communities that focused on Syria are in general highly fragmented and homophilous; however, only one of the nine detected network communities that persisted over time exhibited a clear increase in homophily.

Suggested Citation

  • Deen Freelon & Marc Lynch & Sean Aday, 2015. "Online Fragmentation in Wartime," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 659(1), pages 166-179, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:659:y:2015:i:1:p:166-179
    DOI: 10.1177/0002716214563921
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Eszter Hargittai & Jason Gallo & Matthew Kane, 2008. "Cross-ideological discussions among conservative and liberal bloggers," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 134(1), pages 67-86, January.
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