Who has set whose agenda on social media? A dynamic social network analysis of Tweets on Paris attack

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study investigates the agenda-setting theory in the context of social media through dynamic social network analyses of 102,145 Tweets in a week after Paris attack on Twitter. Results indicate that professional mass media organizations still hold a greater agenda-setting power than individual opinion leaders for setting the public agenda, as they obtain significantly more tweets, mentions, and replies from the public. While the overall media agenda significantly correlates with the agenda set by the individual opinion leaders on Paris attack, time-series analysis reveals the intermedia agenda-setting effects between mass media and individual opinion leaders on Twitter are immediate and decrease as time elapses. Methodological and theoretical implications are discussed.