connecting and collecting on and offline political network data
DESCRIPTION
From DIMACS Workshop on Building Communities for Transforming Social Media Research Through New Approaches for Collecting, Analyzing, and Exploring Social Media Data http://dimacs.rutgers.edu/Workshops/SocialMedia/program.htmlTRANSCRIPT
Collecting and Connecting On and Offline Political Network DataLibby Hemphill
Department of Humanities
Illinois Institute of Technology
my work in general
Public policy
Social Media
Civic action
today’s topic
Policy discussion
s
Congress on
focus of inquiry
Whole populations
Bounded groups with known members
connecting disparate data sources
offline data
social media data
Better
insight
Does social media provide an alternate route to influence?
Nope.
data sources
My data
Co-sponsorship
Govtrack
ICPSR IDs
Congress.gov
First, fast movers control the discussion.
The same people wield influence online and off.
who’s influential online?
PersonNormalized Connectedness
Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)
1.00
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) .99
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) .94
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) .91
Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) .91
Rep. Tim Griffin (R-AR) .91
Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) .88
Rep. Bob Latta (R-OH) .88
what’s my point?
Social media data is most useful when we connect to other data sources.
Social media is not an alternate route to influence for politicians.
Male-ness and Republican-ness are still the most reliable routes to power.
a call to action
Respect expertise beyond the technical
Educate students to be adequate coders and outstanding theorists
Thank you
Libby Hemphill
Department of Humanities
Illinois Institute of Technology
http://libbyh.com
Who said it first – Congress or the press?
How do constituents lobby Congress via Twitter?
How can we measure the impact of online protests like #stopthensa?
Rep. J
ohn
A. Boe
hner
(R-O
H)
Rep. K
evin M
cCar
thy (R
-CA)
Rep. D
arre
ll Iss
a (R
-CA)
Rep. S
teny
Hoy
er (D
-MD)
Rep. P
aul R
yan
(R-W
I)
Rep. T
im G
riffin
(R-A
R)
Rep. D
avid C
icillin
e (D
-RI)
Rep. B
ob Lat
ta (R
-OH)
Rep. V
irginia Fox
x (R
-NC)
Rep. N
ancy
Pelos
i (D-C
A)
Rep. M
ichele
Bachm
ann
(R-M
N)
Rep. A
ndy Har
ris (R
-MD)
Sen.
Har
ry R
eid
(D-N
V)
Rep. J
ohn
Garam
endi (D
-CA)
Rep. T
om P
rice
(R-G
A)
Rep. C
athy
McM
orris
Rod
gers
(R-W
A)
Rep. R
enee
L. E
llmer
s (R-N
C)
Rep. X
avier B
ecer
ra (D
-CA)
Rep. K
enny
Mar
chan
t (R-T
X)
Rep. S
am G
rave
s (R-M
O)0.75
0.8
0.85
0.9
0.95
1
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