A multilayered analysis of polarization and leaderships in the Catalan Parliamentarians' Twitter Network

Abstract

This article examines three layers of interaction (Twitter's following-followers relationships, retweets and mentions) within a tight-crowd and affiliation network: the Catalan Parliamentarians' Twitter Network. The objective is to test if Twitter is opening communication between parties and enabling new leaderships or if it is reducing them to representatives of the same party or ideology and empowering party leaders. The study is based on a dataset spanning from 1 January 2013 to 31 March 2014 which covers following-followers relationships (4,516), retweets (6,045) and mentions (19,507) of Catalan parliamentarians. We use social network analysis and Gephi visualizations, jointly with multiple regression in order to explain which individual and network characteristics trigger a centrality position in the network. The data sustain that the political polarization is deeper in the relationship and retweet networks than it is in the mention and that even if party leaders are still at the center of communication flows, other parliamentarians are taking the floor and becoming network leaders.