Understanding the Political Representativeness of Twitter Users. (December 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Barberá, Pablo; Rivero, Gonzalo
• Is Part Of: Social science computer review. Volume 33:Number 6(2015:Dec.)
• Page Start: 712
• Page End: 729
• Publication Date: 2015-12
• Subjects: Twitter -- inequality -- political discussion; Social sciences -- Data processing -- Periodicals; Computers -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Microcomputers -- Periodicals; Sciences sociales -- Informatique -- Périodiques; Micro-ordinateurs -- Périodiques; 300.285
• DOI: 10.1177/0894439314558836
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0894-4393

Abstract

In this article, we analyze the structure and content of the political conversations that took place through the microblogging platform Twitter in the context of the 2011 Spanish legislative elections and the 2012 U.S. presidential elections. Using a unique database of nearly 70 million tweets collected during both election campaigns, we find that Twitter replicates most of the existing inequalities in public political exchanges. Twitter users who write about politics tend to be male, to live in urban areas, and to have extreme ideological preferences. Our results have important implications for future research on the relationship between social media and politics, since they highlight the need to correct for potential biases derived from these sources of inequality.