Mapping social networks on a new communication ecosystem

Mapping social networks on a new communication ecosystem Inês Amaral – inesamaral@gmail.com (University of Minho / Instituto Superior Miguel Torga) Helena Sousa – helena@ics.uminho.pt (University of Minho)

Keywords

Agenda • Introduction • Context: New Communication Ecosystem • Perspective: Sociability With No Territory • Study: Social Networks on Twitter • Results • Discussion • Further Research

Introduction [1] Thesis/Assumption: new sociability based on a constantly changing model of communication that has transformed the concept of user in Consumer 2.0 and created to the receivers the possibility of publishing for a global audience. - BEING ONLINE > people are changing their behaviours: they work, live and think connectedly. - COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE > the new digital environment promotes collective action, consumers 2.0 and prosumers. - ‘GLOCALIZATION’ > we are globalizing the local through the web.

Introduction [2] Objective: explore the possibility of a new communication paradigm oriented to socialization based in social web platforms and user-generated content. Research Question: network environments (based on collective intelligence and action) promote a new kind of citizenship and consequently sociability with new relationships and practices? Hypothesis: web’s collaborative potential establishes spaces for public engagement and network participation. Empirical Study: draw social networks on microblogging service Twitter based on ‘folksonomy’.

Context: New Communication Ecosystem – Dynamic model of communication: the possibility of the receiver being also a sender and a dynamic part of the communication process . – New ecosystem: individualization of communication (user-centred) but maximizing the social. – Metamorphic idea of territoriality: the concept of space is a result of the construction of shared systems and symbolic representation of social dynamics. Cyberspace is the displacement of sociability where collective intelligence is promoted by a new communication ecosystem.

Perspective: Sociability With No Territory – Community and Society: updating the concepts to the new sociability with no territory. – Social Web: lack of territory + prosumers + new forms of aggregation of individuals = social networks and online communities – Web 2.0 as a ‘social amplifier’: participation, mobility and power. Community and Society rises to 2.0.

Study: Social Networks on Twitter > Keywords

Study Context: Twitter and Microblogging – Microblogging: a form of blogging based on immediacy and portability. Users publish updates (typically 140 or 200 characters) to a public timeline or to a distributed private group of subscribers. – Twitter: ‘Twittering’ is now a daily activity for millions of people. – Twitter timelines: public, hashtag and user. – Twitter conventions: tweets, retweets, reply/mention, direct messages, hashtags, lists, profile. – Trending Topics on Twitter: what is happening around the world.

Design of the Study: Social Networks on Twitter – Objective: analyze a map of conversations on Twitter through different hashtags and draw social networks based on ‘folksonomy’ in order to understand how the web’s collaborative potential establishes spaces for public engagement and network participation. – Methodology: Social Network Analysis – Data: 2 distinct data sets based on Twitter hashtags: #iranelection and #michaeljackson [24h/each] #iranelection #michaeljackson Number of users 8083 13957 Total of Tweets 12006 16072 Interactions among 5001 4094 users [@ & RT]

Results: Hashtag Networks #iranelection’s network #michaeljackson’s network

Results: Hashtag Networks – Content-based networks where is possible to draw interactions through conversation-based tweets. – Two undirected graphs: a direct edge between users that establish direct conversations (@ or RT) without regard to reciprocity. – #iranelection has more conversation-based tweets and users more active [average 1,49 tweets per user]. – #michaeljackson’s network is mainly structured on content-tweets and users are less active [average 1,15 tweets per user]. – Degree distribution reveals residual connectivity. – Secondary conversations can be seen more often. – Both networks are similar to scale free: self-organized social network where central actors are the most active ones and have more ties with others.

Discussion – Twitter promotes a network environment simultaneously based on collective intelligence and direct action. – Retweets promote a new kind of social practice and, in some sense, social relationships. – Users are connected by different bonds (share, interact, promote, express) that may transformed the way people communicate and interact online. Social networks have many interesting characteristics and are similar to a complicated organism whose global structure shows an interesting morphological structure. Therefore, and although it might be tempting to draw final conclusions about the structure of the graphs, such arguments may be misleading.

Further Research Further research will analyze the content of tweets published on different days (evolution of the networks) in order to understand: i. if the social tagging systems promote a unique social communication or this kind of phenomena is a continuity in public communication; ii. if web’s collaborative potential establishes spaces for a declared public engagement and network participation; iii. if there is a new kind of citizenship and consequently sociability that result from new social relationships and practices that we have observed. W. I. P.

THANK YOU! INÊS AMARAL [http://ciberesfera.com] HELENA SOUSA

Mapping social networks on a new communication ecosystem

by Ines Amaral

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