Articulación de la influencia en Twitter ante el anuncio de la Ley del referéndum en Cataluña

Abstract

Directed links in social media could represent anything from intimate friendships to common interests, or even a passion for breaking news or celebrity gossip. Such directed links determine the flow of information and hence indicate a user's influence on others-a concept that is crucial in sociology and viral marketing. In this paper, using a large amount of data collected from Twitter, we present an in-depth comparison of three measures of influence: indegree, retweets, and mentions. Based on these measures, we investigate the dynamics of user influence across topics and time. We make several interesting observations. First, popular users who have high indegree are not necessarily influential in terms of spawning retweets or mentions. Second, most influential users can hold significant influence over a variety of topics. Third, influence is not gained spontaneously or accidentally, but through concerted effort such as limiting tweets to a single topic. We believe that these findings provide new insights for viral marketing and suggest that topological measures such as indegree alone reveals very little about the influence of a user.

Analysis of the social and media debate during the Catalan Independence Referendum

“…In the first case, the media prioritized the idea of conflict and aggression, while in the second case, maybe conditioned by the larger presence of anonymous Catalan citizens as protagonists, the idea that the referendum was a desirable and acceptable fact was highlighted, through a gentler discourse focused on Catalan efforts to resolve the conflict. The results obtained from this study have ratified the results of previous studies (Moragas-Fernández et al, 2019;San Cornelio & Gómez, 2019), while also providing new contributions, especially when it comes to offering a specific classification of frames for simultaneously assessing the interpretative frameworks used in the online media as well as in the social media.…”

“…Dubois & Villeneuve-Siconnelly, 2019) and the discussions on Twitter concerning the conflict(Moragas-Fernández et al, 2019). In this respect, according toCarrasco et al (2018), the pro-independence movement showed a higher mobilization on social networks than the pro-unionists, which was explained in the previous section as being due to the grassroots nature of the mobilization of the Catalan citizens.Therefore, it can be said that polarization was a defining aspect of the social debate which took place on Twitter, the social network which awoke the highest level of interest among its users(Moragas-Fernández et al, 2019; Hernández-Santaolalla & Sola-Rocío Zamora-Medina and Leonarda García-Jiménez DOI: 10.25200/BJR.v18n1.2022.1421Morales, 2019;Carrasco et al, 2018;Pérez Curiel, 2020), possibly due to its conversational nature.…”

“…Rocío Zamora-Medina and Leonarda García-Jiménez DOI: 10.25200/BJR.v18n1.2022.1421 Xicoy et al, 2017). The media and the social networks, notably Twitter (Moragas-Fernández et al, 2019;Hernández-Santaolalla & Sola-Morales, 2019;Arce et al, 2020;Carrasco et al, 2018), intensified the debate with such radically opposing arguments that the referendum attempt has been defined as "a totally polarized media war" (López-Olano & Fenoll, 2019, p. 2). This analysis of the referendum attempt adds to the research which, over the last few years, has studied how digital and media communication have shaped the events which marked the tense relationship between Spain and Catalonia since, at least, the decision of the Constitutional Court regarding the Catalonia Statute of June 28th, 2010 (Perales-García & Pont-Sorribes, 2017; Alonso Muñoz, 2014;Ballesteros, 2015aBallesteros, , 2015bLejarza et al, 2015;Castelló & Capdevilla, 2013).…”

“…In this respect, according toCarrasco et al (2018), the pro-independence movement showed a higher mobilization on social networks than the pro-unionists, which was explained in the previous section as being due to the grassroots nature of the mobilization of the Catalan citizens.Therefore, it can be said that polarization was a defining aspect of the social debate which took place on Twitter, the social network which awoke the highest level of interest among its users(Moragas-Fernández et al, 2019; Hernández-Santaolalla & Sola-Rocío Zamora-Medina and Leonarda García-Jiménez DOI: 10.25200/BJR.v18n1.2022.1421Morales, 2019;Carrasco et al, 2018;Pérez Curiel, 2020), possibly due to its conversational nature. Far from diversifying the positions held or considering alternatives to the pro-unionist or pro-independence stances held by the political parties, the citizens' movement, and the media, the same logic characterized the debate on Twitter, both during October 1st (Hernández-Santaolalla & Sola-Morales, 2019), as well as during previous key events, such as the passing of the Catalan Referendum Law(Moragas-Fernández et al, 2019).High emotions and feelings, together with the "rejection of rationality" dominated this social network (Hernández-Santaolalla & Sola-Morales, 2019; Arce et al, 2020), with a clear dividing line which made a rational debate and interchange of ideas virtually nonexistent. The study carried out by Arce et al (2020) based on the reaction on Twitter (hashtag #ElDilemaSalvados) to the TV program Salvados, rebroadcast exactly one year after the failed consultation attempt, showed that the public debate was still dominated by two clearly diverse groups who directly opposed the arguments of their political opponents, even provoking fear among the public, who fully trusted their own polarized groups, among whom there was hardly any contact, debate or exchange of ideas.…”

“…and which allows the opening of debates traditionally limited to the central public sphere. Furthermore, we started from the premise that Twitter transforms the public sphere both on a structural level, by increasing citizen participation, and on an influencing process level(Moragas et al, 2019). Hence, as previous studies have shown, ideological polarization is a key component, so it is possible to detect, in some cases, sounding boards regarding the flow of communication regarding certain controversial events, such as the Catalan referendum attempt (Esteve & Borge, 2018).…”