communication between u.s. senators on twitter

Communication Between U.S. Senators

on Twitter

Kayla Hammond Larkin@hahahammondSimmons College

LIS-505L-BL01Summer 2017

Question:How do senators communicate with each other on Twitter?

Data collectionUsing the Twitter API and various Python libraries (e.g. Tweepy) I created a script to collect all the tweets that all 100 U.S. Senators tweeted between June 1, 2017, and July 31, 2017 (a period that marks the height of healthcare discussions in Senate).

I also gathered senator attribute data (such as each senator's political party, the state they represent, their voting record, and their position on political spectrum from left to right) from the website ProgressivePunch.org.

I then created additional Python scripts to analyze the hashtags included and fellow senators mentioned in the tweets tweeted by each senator.

Finally, I wrote Python scripts to create a matrix of the full network to visualize and further analyze in UCINET. The matrix details how many times each senator mentioned each of their fellow senators over the two-month data collection period.

Full networkby political party

Democrat (46)

Republican (52)

Independent (2)

Full networkalong political spectrum

Far left

Somewhat left

Center

Somewhat right

Far right

Ego network for Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)

Far left

Somewhat left

Center

Somewhat right

Far right

Ego network for Ed Markey (D-MA)

Far left

Somewhat left

Center

Somewhat right

Far right

Ego network for Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)

Far left

Somewhat left

Center

Somewhat right

Far right

Ego network forLuther Strange (R-AL)

Far left

Somewhat left

Center

Somewhat right

Far right

Analysis of full network

○ Total number of tweets tweeted by senators from June 1, 2017, to July 31, 2017: 26,055

○ Total number of tweets in which a senator mentioned one or more fellow senators from June 1, 2017, to July 31, 2017: 3,687

Top hashtags included in tweets where senators mention one or more fellow senators

Analysis: Reciprocity

Dyad-based reciprocity for the entire network: 0.2509

Analysis: Density

Full network density: 0.245

Analysis: Degree Centrality

○ Group degree centralization (outdegree): 0.0014○ Group degree centralization (indegree): 0.0023

Analysis: Eigenvector

Key findings○ Reciprocity between senators (i.e. the rate at which two senators

mention each other in their respective tweets) is low across the board. Communication between senators on Twitter appears to be one-way for the most part.

○ Cory Booker and John McCain are arguably the most important senators on Twitter, based on various metrics.

○ Republicans are more likely to “cross the aisle” with their tweets than Democrats are (i.e. Republicans are more likely to mention Democrats than Democrats are to mention Republicans).

○ The further to the left a senator is on the political spectrum, the more likely they are to tweet at like-minded senators.

Thank you!Any questions?

communication between u.s. senators on twitter

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