Political Interaction Beyond Party Lines: Communication Ties and Party Polarization in Parliamentary Twitter Networks

Abstract

A growing body of research has examined the uptake of social media by politicians, the formation of communication ties in online political networks, and the interplay between social media and political polarization. However, few studies have analyzed how social media are affecting communication in parliamentary networks. This is especially relevant in highly fragmented political systems in which collaboration between political parties is crucial to win support in parliament. Does MPs’ use of social media foster communications among parliamentarians who think differently, or does it result in like-minded clusters polarized along party lines, confining MPs to those who think alike? This study analyzes the formation of communication ties and the degree of homophily in the Dutch MPs’ @mention Twitter network. We employed exponential random graph models on a 1-year sample of all tweets in which Dutch MPs mentioned each other ( N = 7,356) to discover the network parameters (reciprocity, popularity, and brokerage) and individual attributes (seniority, participation in the parliamentary commissions, age, gender, and geographical area) that facilitate communication ties among parliamentarians. Also, we measured party polarization by calculating the external–internal index of the mentions. Dutch MPs’ communication ties arise from network dynamics (reciprocity, brokerage, and popularity) and from MPs’ participation in the parliamentary commissions, age, gender, and geographical area. Furthermore, there is a high degree of cross-party interactions in the Dutch MPs’ mentions Twitter network. Our results refute the existence of “echo chambers” in the Dutch MPs’ mentions Twitter network and support the hypothesis that social media can open up spaces for discussion among political parties. This is particularly important in fragmented consensus democracies where negotiation and coordination between parties to form coalitions is key.

Homophily and Polarization in Twitter Political Networks: A Cross-Country Analysis

“…As for the existence of status-homophily, in line with previous research in the field (Straus et al, 2013), our data reveal high levels of homophily among the mentions of young (26-44) Catalan MPs and young (26-44) Dutch MPs. However, in contrast to previous studies which found that gender similarity explained interactions in Twitter political networks (Esteve-Del-Valle et al, 2021;Karlsen & Ejolras, 2016), homophilous gender ties were only found to explain interactions among female MPs in the Netherlands. The same applies to the leadership position homophily among the MPs (holding a political position), which despite being found to explain the existence of followee relations among politicians (Esteve-Del-Valle & Bravo, 2018b), does not explain the existence of homophilous ties among the Catalan MPs or among the Dutch MPs.…”

“…On Facebook, Wimmer and Lewis (2010) showed that racial homogeneity results from racial homophilic ties among users, and Barnett and Benefield (2015) found cultural homophily to be one of the causes of international Facebook friendship networks. Similarly, several studies conducted on Twitter have shown that communications among individuals with shared sociodemographic characteristics and political attitudes are more likely to happen than with dissimilar individuals (Esteve- Del-Valle et al, 2021;Himelboim et al, 2013;Hong & Kim, 2016).…”

“…Third, the present analysis not only assesses the degree of political homophily and polarization independently but also establishes a relation between both phenomena. Despite the explanatory power of such a combination, research trying to combine both phenomena is in its early stages (Esteve-Del-Valle & Bravo, 2018a;Esteve-Del-Valle et al, 2021).…”

Moonwalking together: Tracing Redditors’ digital memory work on Michael Jackson

“…Our mobile, digital, and networked media create an environment in which connection is central (Esteve Del Valle et al, 2021;Esteve Del Valle et al, 2020a). In The Culture of Connectivity, José van Dijck (2013) demonstrates how the interconnectedness of social media platforms has given rise to a new 'ecosystem of connective media' that reshapes sociality into a 'platformed' sociality (pp.…”

Análisis del discurso político en Twitter en España: el caso de las elecciones generales de abril de 2019

“…Tal y como han comentado varios autores en este ámbito, «la influencia de las redes sociales en política es cada vez mayor» (Renobell, 2017: 118). En este sentido, un creciente cuerpo de investigación ha examinado la adopción de las redes sociales por parte de los políticos, la formación de lazos de comunicación en las redes políticas en línea y la interacción entre las redes sociales y la polarización política (Esteve Del Valle et al, 2021).…”