Partisan Asymmetries in Online Political Activity
This research addresses partisan asymmetries in online political engagement for social scientists and policymakers, but it is incremental as it builds on prior work like the 2008 campaign analysis.
The study analyzed partisan differences among over 18,000 politically-active Twitter users around the 2010 midterm elections, finding that right-leaning users showed higher political activity, more interconnected social structures, and network topologies enabling faster information spread compared to the 2008 campaign.
We examine partisan differences in the behavior, communication patterns and social interactions of more than 18,000 politically-active Twitter users to produce evidence that points to changing levels of partisan engagement with the American online political landscape. Analysis of a network defined by the communication activity of these users in proximity to the 2010 midterm congressional elections reveals a highly segregated, well clustered partisan community structure. Using cluster membership as a high-fidelity (87% accuracy) proxy for political affiliation, we characterize a wide range of differences in the behavior, communication and social connectivity of left- and right-leaning Twitter users. We find that in contrast to the online political dynamics of the 2008 campaign, right-leaning Twitter users exhibit greater levels of political activity, a more tightly interconnected social structure, and a communication network topology that facilitates the rapid and broad dissemination of political information.